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AMERICANISM 

AND 

PREPAREDNESS 



Speeches 

» of • 

Theodore Roosevelt 

July to November, 191 6 




NEW YORK, 191 7 
THE MAIL AND EXPRESS JOB PRINT 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

- PAGE 

Duty First. Lewiston, Maine, August 31, 1916 5 

Words and Deeds. Battle Creek, Michigan, September 

30, 1916 30 

The Square Deal in Industry. Wilkes-Barre, Pennsyl- 
vania, Oct. 14, 1916 62 

The Mexican Iniquity. Phoenix, Arizona, October 21, 

1916 92 

Preparedness: Military, Industrial and Spiritual. 

Denver, Colorado, October 24, 1916 103 

True Americanism and National Defense. Chicago, 

Illinois, October 26, 1916 121 

The Soul of the Nation. Cooper Union, New York, 

November 3, 1916 134 



DUTY FIRST 
Lewiston, Maine, August 31, 1916 



I COME here to Maine to advocate the election of Charles 
E. Hughes as President of the United States, and the 
election of a Senate and House of Representatives to support 
him, and to give some of the reasons why in my judgment 
it would be a grave misfortune for the people of the United 
States to re-elect Mr. Wilson, 

I make no merely partisan appeal. I ask the support of 
all good citizens for our cause. I ask the support of all good 
Americans. And I not merely ask, but demand as a matter 
of right, that every citizen voting this year shall consider 
the question at issue from the standpoint of America, and 
not from the standpoint of any other nation. 

The root idea of American citizenship, the necessary 
prerequisite for patriotic service at home, and for service 
to mankind at large, is that there shall be in our citizenship 
no dual allegiance. There must be no divided loyalty be- 
tween this country and the country from which any of our 
citizens, or the ancestors of any of our citizens, have come. 
The policy of the United States must be shaped with a view 
to two conditions only: first, with a view to the honor and 
interest of the United States, and second, with a view to the 
interest of the world as a whole. It is therefore our high 
and solemn duty, both to prepare our own strength so as 
to guarantee our own safety, and also to treat every foreign 
nation, in any given crisis, as its conduct in that crisis de- 
mands. The citizen who does not so act, and who endeavors 
to shape America's policy in the interest of the country from 
which he or his ancestors have sprung, is no true American, 
and has no moral right to citizenship in this country. Any 
attempt to organize American citizens along politico-racial 
lines is a foul and evil thing. Any organization of American 
citizens which acts in the interest of a foreign power is 



6 Americanism and Preparedness 

guilty of moral treason to the Republic. It is because of 
such action that I condemn those professional German- 
Americans who in our politics act as servants and allies of 
Germany, not as Americans interested solely in the honor 
and welfare of America; and I would condemn just as quick- 
ly English-Americans or French-Americans or Irish-Ameri- 
cans who acted in such manner. 

Americanism is a matter of the spirit, of the soul, of 
the mind ; not of birthplace or creed. We care nothing as 
to where any man was born, or as to the land from which 
his forefathers came, so long as he is wholeheartedly and 
in good faith an American and nothing else. If the man is 
a good American we care nothing as to his creed, whether 
he be Protestant, Catholic or Jew ; we care nothing whether 
his ancestors came over in the Mayflower, or whether he 
himself was born in England or Ireland, in France or Ger- 
many, in Scandinavia or Russia. Some of the very best 
Americans I have ever known were men who were born 
abroad ; and in every great period of American history, the 
Americans who deserved best of their country have included 
men of different creeds ; men whose ancestors had for gen- 
erations lived on this soil ; and other men who themselves, or 
whose parents, had come from some of the lands of the 
Old World. But all these men alike acted as Americans and 
nothing else, and with an undivided loyalty to this nation, 
and not with a half -loyalty to this nation and a half -loyalty 
to some Old World nation. 

Wilson Lacked Both Courage and Vision 

During the last two years we have seen an evil revival 
in this country of non-Am^erican and anti-American division 
along politico-racial lines ; and we owe this primarily to the 
fact that President Wilson has lacked the courage and the 
vision to lead this nation in the path of high duty, and by 
this lack of affirmative leadership has loosened the moral 
fibre of our people, has weakened our national spirit, and 
has encouraged the upgrowth within our own borders of 
separatism along the lines of racial origin. When our own 
government so acted as to bring shame on all our people, it 
shook the spirit of loyalty among those to whom it was 



Duty First 7 

vital that loyalty should be taught. Full-hearted allegiance 
is shattered by the government that fails to uphold the 
honor and interest of the nation by immediate and effective 
action when the lives of its citizens are menaced or taken 
by foreign powers. 

The cause of preparedness is inseparably connected 
with the cause of Americanism, of patriotism, of whole- 
hearted loyalty to this nation and to all for which all the 
great men of this nation in the past have stood. The events 
of the last two years have made it evident that the dreams 
of the professional pacifists were not merely dreams but 
nightmares, so far as the unfortunate nations who trusted 
them were concerned. Moreover, in practice these pacifists 
have shown not only utter futility but moral baseness. They 
have not only been helpless to defend themselves, but they 
have been so anxious to save their own skins that they have 
not dared to say one word against triumphant wrong and 
in favor of the right that was crushed by the wrong. There 
are few things more revolting than such an attitude when 
taken by professional moralists. 

As the world now is, our great free democracy must 
understand that unless it can protect itself by its own 
strength — and its strength is not strength at all unless it 
is carefully trained in advance — it will sooner or later suffer 
the fate that China is suffering before our eyes. Thanks 
to the fact that President Wilson has sometimes led us 
wrong, and sometimes not led us at all, and that at the best 
he has merely followed afar off when convinced that it was 
politically safe to do so, we are at this moment no more 
prepared to defend ourselves than we were two years ago 
when the world war broke out. At last we have begun the 
work of restoring our navy to the position it formerly held ; 
but it will take years to undo the harm done when in 1910 
the Democratic party gained control of the House and 
stopped upbuilding the navy; and it is entirely impossible 
to make the navy what it should be made as long as we have 
a President who appoints and retains at its head a public 
official of the type of Mr. Daniels. Our regular army should 
be increased to a quarter of a million men, with a short- 
service term of enlistment; this would give us a mobile army 



8 Americanism and Preparedness 

of 125,000 men, enough to patrol the Mexican border with- 
out help from the National Guard, when Mr, Wilson halts 
between feeble peace and feeble war. But this is not enough. 
The events of the past two years have shown that no people 
can permanently preserve its freedom unless that people is 
trained to arms. Above all, this is true of a democracy. 
The enjoyment of right must go hand in hand with the per- 
formance of duty. Universal suffrage cannot be justified 
unless it connotes the performance by every voter of full 
duty to the state both in peace and in war. The man who 
refuses to fit himself to fight in righteous war for his coun- 
try is not fit to vote in that country. We should follow the 
examples of the free democracies of Switzerland and Aus- 
tralia. There should be in this country a system of uni- 
versal obligatory military training in time of peace, and 
in time of war universal service in whatever capacity the 
man or woman shall be judged most fit to serve the com- 
monwealth. 

An Injustice to Pontius Pilate 

The policies of Americanism and preparedness, taken 
together, mean applied patriotism. There should be cor- 
relation af policy and armament. Our first duty as citizens 
of the United States is owed to the United States. But if 
we are true to our principles we must also think of serving 
the interests of mankind at large. In addition to serving 
our own country we must shape the policy of our country 
so as to secure the cause of international righteousness, fair 
play and humanity. Our first duty is to protect our own 
rights; our second, to stand up for the rights of others. 
President Wilson has signally failed to perforin either duty. 
They can be performed only by deed. Words alone are use- 
less. But, above all, fine words about abstract qualities which 
are contradicted by unworthy deeds in concrete cases are 
much worse than useless, because they teach us habits of 
hypocrisy, and because they cause other nations to regard 
us with utter contempt. President Wilson in his Decoration 
Day speech said : "We hold dear the principle that small 
and weak states have as much right to their sovereignty and 
independence as large and strong nations." These were the 
fine words. They were spoken about the abstract. When 



Duty First 9 

it became his duty to reduce them to deeds in the concrete, 
Mr. Wilson immediately flinched. The case of Belgium ex- 
actly met his definition. It was a small and weak state (and 
a highly civilized and well-behaved state). Its "right to 
sovereignty and independence" was trampled under foot by 
a neighboring "large and strong nation." But as soon as 
the need for deeds arose, Mr. Wilson forgot all about "the 
principle he held dear." He promptly announced that we 
should be "neutral in fact as well as in name, in thought 
as well as in action," between the small, weak, unoffending 
nation and the large, strong nation which was robbing it of 
its sovereignty and independence. Such neutrality has 
been compared to the neutrality of Pontius Pilate. This 
is unjust to Pontius Pilate, who at least gently urged 
moderation on the wrongdoers. The President's fine words 
were used merely to cloak ignoble action and ignoble in- 
action. All Americans proud of their country should 
keenly resent the wrong he thereby did their country. As 
an American with exceptional international knowledge has 
said : " . . .A single official expression by the Govern- 
ment of the United States, a single sentence denying assent 
and recording disapproval of what Germany did in Bel- 
gium, would have given to the people of America that lead- 
ership to which they were entitled in their earnest groping 
for the light. It would have ranged behind American 
leadership the conscience and morality of the neutral world. 
It would have brought to American diplomacy the respect 
and strength of loyalty to a great cause. But it was not to 
be. The American Government failed to rise to the de- 
mands of the great occasion. . . ." 

Wilson's "Peace" Rages Furiously in Mexico 

At this moment Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Wilson's fugle- 
men, advance as his greatest claim that "he has kept us 
out of war." This claim can be seriously made only by 
individuals who endorse President Wilson's belief that 
deeds are nothing, and words everything. War means a 
clash between the armed forces of two countries. Nowa- 
days (thanks quite as much to the professional pacifists 
as to the militarists) it means, furthermore, the destruction 



10 Americanism and Preparedness 

of the lives of civilians, and the property of civilians, as 
vjqW as the property of the government. Under President 
McKinley we had a war with Spain. Under President 
Wilson we are assured that we have had "peace" with 
Mexico. These are the words. Now for the deeds. During 
the war with Spain fewer Americans were killed by the 
Spaniards than have been killed by Mexicans during the 
present "peace" with Mexico. Let me repeat this. A 
greater number of Americans have been killed by Mexicans 
during these years, when we are officially informed that we 
have been at peace with them, than were killed by the 
Spaniards during our entire war with Spain. Moreover, 
when the war with Spain was through, it was through. 
But peace still continues to rage as furiously as ever in 
Mexico. Nor is this all. The instant effect of the outcome 
of the war with Spain was to put a stop to the dreadful 
butchery and starvation in Cuba and the Philippines, and 
the entry of both Cuba and the Philippines on a career of 
eighteen years of peace and prosperity such as they have 
never known before in all their checkered history. But 
during these three years of Mr. Wilson's "peace," the 
Mexicans themselves have been butchered by their own 
bandits steadily and without intermission; and Mexican 
women and children have died by thousands— probably by 
scores of thousands — of starvation, and of the diseases 
incident to starvation. In other words, Mr. McKinley's 
war cost less bloodshed than Mr. Wilson's peace; and it 
reflected high honor on the American people; whereas Mr. 
Wilson's peace has been one of shame and dishonor for 
the American people, and one of ruin and bloodshed for 
the Mexicans themselves. 

The Life Cost of Wilson's "Peace" 

Mr. Wilson says we have had peace with Mexico. He 
says he did not wage war with Mexico. If he takes any 
comfort out of this denial, let us not insist upon the proper 
terminology, and admit that he merely waged peace with 
Mexico. Well, as one incident of his waging peace we took 
Vera Cruz. Some seventy-five men wearing the American 



Duty First 11 

uniform were killed and wounded, and three or four times 
that number of Mexicans. In Mr. McKinley's war we took 
Manila; and Dewey's fleet lost fewer men in the operation 
that resulted in the fall of Manila than were lost in the 
taking of Vera Cruz. Under these conditions, of what 
earthly consequence is it to assert that the taking of Vera 
Cruz was an act of peace, and the taking of Manila an act 
of war? Only by a misuse of terminology, only by the use 
of an incorrect nomenclature, can we distinguish one mili- 
tary operation from the other. 

Unlike McKinley, Wilson Quit 

The real difference was that Mr. Wilson became fright- 
ened and abandoned Vera Cruz, whereas Mr. McKinley 
did not abandon Manila. Mr. Wilson's operations were 
war just as much as Mr. McKinley's. But Mr. Wilson was 
beaten in his war. It was a war which was entered into 
pointlessly and abandoned ignobly; it was a war which 
failed ; a war which did damage both to the Mexicans and 
ourselves, and which in its outcome reflected infinite dis- 
honor upon our nation. But it was a v/ar, nevertheless. 

Again, in March last, Villa made a raid into American 
territory. He was a bandit leader whose career of suc- 
cessful infamy had been greatly aided by Mr. Wilson's 
favor and backing. He was at the head of Mexican sol- 
diers, whose arms and ammunition had been supplied to 
them in consequence of Mr. Wilson's reversing Mr. Taft's 
policy and lifting the embargo against arms and munitions 
into Mexico. They attacked Columbus, New Mexico, and 
killed a number of civilians and a number of United States 
troops. On the next day the President issued an an- 
nouncement that adequate forces would be sent in pursuit 
of Villa "with the single object of capturing him." On 
April 8th the announcement was made from the White 
House that the troops would remain in Mexico until Villa 
was captured. It was furthermore announced in the press 
despatches from Washington that he was to be taken "dead 
or alive." Fine words! Only — they meant nothing. He 
is not dead. He has not been taken alive. 



12 Americanism and Preparedness 

Wilson's "Peace" Cost More Lives Than McKinley's War 

On May 12th, the pursuit of Villa was formally aban- 
doned. On June 1st the official figures of the dead and 
wounded during this futile expedition were published, and 
they showed that the killed and wounded included one hun- 
dred and sixteen United States soldiers and ninety-five 
American civilians. Since then the Mexicans have killed 
many more; I notice, for example, in the press, that at 
Decatur, Alabama, there has just been buried Claude Bates, 
an American soldier, who died July 24th of wounds re- 
ceived two days previously in a fight with Mexican bandits. 
Every week I have seen press statements of the killing of 
American regular soldiers or American civilians on the 
border. I do not know the total number of these killings 
since June 1st ; but they include the Carrizal massacre. 
However, even before June 1st, in this futile expedition 
against Villa, more Americans had been killed and wounded 
than in all the fights by land and sea during the Spanish 
War; save only the battle of Santiago itself. In other 
words, during this murderous "peace" of Messrs, Wilson 
and Carranza, in less than three months more American 
blood was shed than in the destruction of the Spanish fleet 
at Manila, and than in the destruction of the Spanish fleet 
off Santiago ; and than in the taking of Manila ; and than 
in the fight at Guasimas ; in short, in all the operations 
combined during the Spanish War, save only the actual 
battle of Santiago itself. And yet there are persons who 
seemingly take comfort in speaking of one set of opera- 
tions as being war, and who praise the other set as being 
part of our "policy of peace" — the blood-stained peace of 
Messrs. Wilson and Carranza. 

You do not have to accept my statement of conditions 
in Mexico. Accept the official statement of President Wil- 
son's Secretary of State to Carranza on June 20th last, 
which runs as follows : 

The Ghastly Official Record 

"For three years the Mexican republic has been torn 
with civil strife; the lives of Americans and other aliens 
have been sacrificed ; vast properties accumulated by Amer- 



Duty First 13 

ican capital and enterprise have been destroyed or rendered 
non-productive; bandits have been permitted to roam at 
will throughout the territory contiguous to the United 
States and to seize, without punishment, or without effec- 
tive attempt at punishment' the property of Americans, 
while the lives of citizens of the United States who ven- 
tured to remain in Mexican territory or to return there to 
protect their interests have been taken, in some cases bar- 
barously taken, and the murderers have neither been ap- 
prehended nor brought to justice. It would be difficult to 
find in the annals of the history of Mexico conditions more 
deplorable than those which have existed there during these 
recent years of civil war. It would be tedious to recount 
instance after instance, outrage after outrage, atrocity 
after atrocity, to illustrate the true nature and extent of 
the widespread condition of lawlessness and violence which 
has prevailed. During the last nine months in particular 
the frontier of the United States along the lower Rio 
Grande has been thrown into a state of constant appre- 
hension and turmoil because of the frequent and sudden 
incursions into American territory and depredations and 
murders on American soil by Mexican bandits, who have 
taken the lives and destroyed the property of American 
citizens, sometimes carrying American citizens across the 
international boundary with the booty seized. American 
garrisons have been attacked at night, American soldiers 
killed and their equipment and horses stolen, American 
ranches have been raided, property stolen and destroyed, 
and American trains wrecked and plundered. 

"The attacks on Brownsville, Red House Ferry, Pro- 
greso postoffice, and Las Palades, all occurring during Sep- 
tember last, are typical. In these attacks on American ter- 
ritory Carranzista adherents, and even Carranzista sol- 
diers, took part in the looting, burning and killing. Not 
only were these murders -characterized by ruthless bru- 
tality, but uncivilized acts of mutilation were perpetrated." 

Wilson Kissed the Red Hand That Slapped His Face 

And this is Mr. Wilson's own official account of the 
"peace" he has secured in Mexico! In this official state- 



14 Americanism and Preparedness 

ment President Wilson gives the final result of his policy 
in Mexico for the past three years. I call your attention 
to the fact that he states that the* attacks on the four enumer- 
ated American towns in September last were "typical," 
and says that "in these attacks on American territory there 
were Carranzista adherents and Carranzista soldiers, who 
took part in the btirning and killing. Not only were these 
murders characterized by ruthless brutality, but uncivilized 
acts of mutilation were perpetrated." 

President Wilson therefore explicitly shows that the 
Carranzistas, not once but repeatedly, made attacks on 
American towns, and killed American citizens, and muti- 
lated them in September, 1915. Yet on October 19th, 1915, 
less than a month later, this same President Wilson, 
through his same Secretary of State, formally announced 
to Carranza's agent that it was his "pleasure" to take the 
opportunity "of extending recognition to the de facto gov- 
ernment of Mexico, of which General Venustiano Car- 
ranza is the chief executive." President Wilson thus recog- 
nized the government which, his own Secretary of State 
declares, had been, less than a month previously, engaged 
in repeated assaults upon Americans, and in the invasion 
of American soil ; the government at whose head was Gen- 
eral Carranza, who, less than two months previously, on 
August 2nd, 1915, had contemptuously refused to pay any 
heed to any representations of President Wilson on behalf 
of mediation, saying that "under no consideration would I 
permit interference in the internal affairs of Mexico." 
President Wilson did not merely kiss the hand that slapped 
him in the face. He kissed that hand when it was red 
with the blood of American men, women and children, who 
had been murdered and mutilated with, as President Wil- 
son, through his Secretary of State, says, "ruthless bru- 
tality." 

Wilson's Shameful Orders at Tampico 

In all this shameful history of Mr. Wilson's dealings 
with Mexico during the past three years, nothing has been 
more shameful than his conduct at Tampico. 

At that time the particular bandit Mr. Wilson was 
favoring happened to be Villa. This, however, is of no 



Duty First 15 

consequence. Mr. Wilson has sometimes helped the dif- 
ferent Mexican leaders of bandits against one another ; now 
Villa against Huerta; now Carranza against Villa; but he 
has never stood up effectively for American rights against 
any of them. When he has ventured to take action against 
any of them he has always hastily abandoned the attempt 
as soon as the resistance by the bandit involved became 
serious. 

At Tampico there was a general movement of attack 
by the Mexicans on Americans and other foreigners. We 
had a squadron of American warships in the neighborhood. 
President Wilson did not use this squadron to defend the 
lives of American men, and the honor of American women, 
and the commanders of the German and English ships at 
Tampico had to step in and perform the task our representa- 
tives had so basely abandoned. At the very time that the 
Mexican mob had surrounded the building in which the 
Americans had taken refuge, and was howling for their 
blood, the American fleet, under orders to join the futile 
attack on Vera Cruz, steamed away and left the Americans 
to be massacred by the Mexicans, or rescued by the Germans 
and English. I wish to say with all gravity and in all seri- 
ousness that in this case the offense of the murderous Mexi- 
can mob was not as serious as the offense of the American 
administration. 

Watched Americans Die Like Rats 

On August 27th, 1913, President Wilson said with 
marked oratorical effect: "We shall vigilantly watch the 
fortunes of those Americans who cannot get away from 
Mexico." "Vigilant watching" — "watchful waiting" — the 
phrase matters nothing; for there never is any deed to 
back it up. Three years have passed since the date of this 
oration; three years of incessant elocution on the part of 
Mr. Wilson ; three years of repeated invocations to human- 
ity and peace by Mr. Wilson; and Mr. Wilson still con- 
tinues to "vigilantly watch the fortunes of those Americans 
who cannot get away." There are not many of them left 
now. Hundreds have been killed, and Mr. Wilson has 
watched their fortunes as disinterestedly as if they had 



16 AmericanisTYi and Preparedness 

been rats pursued by terriers. This administration has 
displayed no more feeling of responsibility for the Ameri- 
can women who have been raped, and for the American 
men, women and children who have been killed in Mexico, 
than a farmer shows for the rats killed by his dogs when 
the hay is taken from a barn. And now the American peo- 
ple are asked to sanction this policy in the name of peace, 
righteousness and humanity! 

A Single-Track Mind With Great Switching Facilities 

Throughout this time President Wilson, in pursuance 
of the policy he enunciated in his message to Congress in 
December, 1914, has kept this country unprepared to fight 
any foreign foe. But he has allowed all of the factions in 
Mexico to prepare themselves to kill American soldiers and 
American civilians. In his message above quoted he says 
that he will "Follow the best practice of nations in matters 
of neutrality by forbidding the exportation of arms and 
munitions of war of any kind from the United States to 
any part of the Republic of Mexico." This was on August 
27th, 1913. On February 2nd, 1914, he changed his mind 
(Mr. Wilson may have a single-track mind, but, as has been 
remarked, in that event he possesses unexampled switching 
facilities) and lifted the embargo on arms and munitions. 
On February 5th the papers published the news of the 
great rush of arms and ammunition across the border to 
the Mexican armies. A couple of hundred of American 
soldiers, sailors, and civilians were killed or wounded dur- 
ing the next two months. And on April 23rd, 1914, Mr. 
Wilson again changed his mind and ordered that the em- 
bargo on arms be restored. But on May 15th he changed 
his mind again, and the embargo was lifted so far as ship- 
ments to Tampico and other Mexican ports were concerned. 
On May 27th, the cargoes of arms which we had refused 
to allow to land at Vera Cruz were accordingly landed else- 
where and sent to Huerta ; while on June 2nd, the Car- 
ranzistas got theirs through Tampico. On September 9th, 
the embargo was lifted everywhere, and during the next 
few months military supplies of all kinds crossed the bor- 
der for all of the Mexican factions. 



Duti) First 17 

At Least 276 Americans Murdered 

On October 29th, 1915, when all the factions had been 
amply supplied, Mr, Wilson again restored the embargo 
as to all factions, excepting the Carranzistas. On October 
29th last, therefore, Mr. Wilson specifically permitted arms 
to be sent the adherents of the very same Carranza, who, 
according to his own Secretary of State, in the month of 
September, thirty days previous, on four specific occasions, 
invaded American territory and butchered American citi- 
zens, mutilating them before or after death. On the date 
when this embargo was thus raised, the names of two 
hundred and seventy-six Americans who had been mur- 
dered had been officially placed on file. How many others 
had been murdered cannot at present be told. 

President Wilson took Vera Cruz in 1914, as we were 
officially informed at the time, to get a salute for the flag, 
and to prevent the shipment of arms into Mexico. He did 
not get his salute. He did not prevent the shipment of arms. 
But several hundred men were killed or wounded ; and then 
he brought the army home without achieving either object. 
President Wilson sent an army into Mexico in 1916, as we 
were informed at the time, to get Villa "dead or alive." They 
did not get him dead. They did not get him alive. Again 
several hundred men were killed or wounded. Again 
President Wilson is bringing the army home without achiev- 
ing his object. Of course it is a mere play upon words to 
say that these were not "wars." They were wars, and noth- 
ing else ; ignoble, pointless, unsuccessful little wars ; but 
wars. They cost millions of dollars and hundreds of lives, 
squandered to no purpose; they accomplished nothing; but 
they were wars. And yet Mr. Wilson's defenders say that 
he "has kept us out of war." As a matter of fact, his policy 
in Mexico has combined all the evils of feeBle peace with all 
the evils of feeble war. He has secured none of the benefits 
of war; but he has not avoided war. He has sacrificed the 
honor and the interest of the country; but he has not re- 
ceived the thirty pieces of silver. In fact, when Mr. Wilson 
forgets himself he admits that we have been at war ; for ex- 
ample, on May 11th, 1914, in an address over the dead ma- 



18 America7iism and Preparedness 

rines at the Navy Yard in Brooklyn (in which, by the way, 
he in effect claimed sympathy on the ground that his feel- 
ings had been as much lacerated by sneers as the bodies ot 
the dead men by bullets), he said that the marines had been 
engaged in a "war of service." A war of service to whom 
or what ? Certainly not to the United States ; nor to Mexico ; 
nor to humanity at large. Was it to Mr. Wilson ? 

Wilson's Futile Spasms 

As it is with "war" so it is with "intervention." Presi- 
dent Wilson has again and again said he would not "inter- 
vene" in Mexico. As a matter of fact, he has intervened con- 
tinuously. On January 8th, 1915, he announced that the 
Mexicans had the right to "spill blood," to spill as much 
blood as they pleased, without interference. The fact that 
the blood they were spilling included the blood of American 
citizens, both soldiers and civilians — and among them 
women and children — evidently did not weigh with him. On 
December 10th, 1915, he said that it was "None of our busi- 
ness what the Mexicans did with their government, and so 
long as I have the power to prevent it nobody shall butt-in 
to alter it for them." Yet at that very time he had been 
"butting-in" for two years, and he has been "butting-in" 
ever since ; and he has avowed that he wished to alter it for 
them in all kinds of ways, from land tenures up and down. 
But as he never followed any policy of either intervention 
or non-intervention with any resolution — always yielding 
at the critical moment to some bandit chief of whom he be- 
came fearful — both his spasms of intervention and his 
spasms of non-intervention have alike been entirely futile. 
In August, 1913, he sent a special envoy to Mexico to tell 
Huerta he would not recognize him. He announced this 
himself in a note in October, and on December 2nd he an- 
nounced he would not deal with the Huerta Government. 
This was intervention, and nothing else; it was such inter- 
vention as if in 1877 some European government had de- 
clined to recognize Hayes as President, and insisted upon 
the seating of Tilden. Mr. Wilson intervened when he backed 
Villa against Huerta. He intervened when he turned against 
Villa, and recognized Carranza. 



Duty First 19 

At one time Mr. Wilson's policy of intervention pro- 
duced such unhappy results that on June 2nd, 1915, he 
issued a formal warning to the Mexican factions in which 
he said that "Mexico is apparently no nearer a solution of her 
tragical troubles than she was when the revolution was first 
kindled. She has been swept by civil war as if by iire. Her 
crops are destroyed, her cattle confiscated, her people flee 
to {he mountains to escape being drawn into unavailing 
bloodshed, and no man seems to see or lead the way to peace 
and settled order. There is no proper protection either for 
her own citizens or for the citizens of other nations resident 
and at work within her territory. Mexico is starving and 
without a government." A delightful picture of the effects 
of Mr. Wilson's policy, by the way! He therefore tells 
Mexico that unless "within a very short time" the Mexican 
leaders get together for the relief and redemption of their 
prostrate country the United States "will be constrained to 
decide what means should be employed" to deal with the 
situation. But, as usual with Mr. Wilson, this solemn warn- 
ing meant precisely and exactly nothing, and the Carran- 
zistas and Villistas and the rest knew that it meant pre- 
cisely nothing. They knew that Mr. Wilson would either not 
back up his words by deeds at all or else that he would back 
them up so feebly that by a sufficient show of resistance 
he could be forced to abandon his purpose. 

Some of the defenders of Mr. Wilson, in answer to Mr. 
Hughes' merciless indictment of Mr. Wilson's course, have 
sought to justify Mr. Wilson by attempting to turn the 
whole issue on the character of Huerta, who was the de 
facto President when Mr. Wilson became President of the 
United States. They ask Mr. Hughes, "Would you have 
recognized Huerta?" The answer is that any one of several 
courses could have been adopted, provided only that the 
course adopted had been followed with resolution and with 
full acceptance of the responsibility involved. 

Wilson Wobbled Between Two Policies 

There was much to be said in favor of the policy of 
recognizing Huerta and avoiding intervention. There was 
also much to be said in favor of the policy of refusing to 



20 Americanism and Preparedness 

recognize Huerta, which was intervention, and then of fully 
accepting the responsibility implied in intervention. But 
there is nothing to be said in favor of wobbling between the 
two policies, and neither recognizing Huerta nor accepting 
the responsibility for the chaos caused by failure to recog- 
nize him. Yet this was the course Mr. Wilson followed. 

There was no excuse for the recognition of Carranza 
in view of Mr. Wilson's failure to recognize Huerta. All the 
objections to Huerta applied with greater force to Carranza. 
Mr. Wilson's apologists say that Huerta was the murderer 
of Mexicans. But Mr. Wilson himself, as quoted above, has 
shown that Carranza was the murderer of Americans. There- 
fore, Mr. Wilson treats the murder of Mexicans as a bar 
to recognition ; but not the murder of both Americans and 
Mexicans. And now, having condoned the repeated mur- 
ders of Americans by the Carranzistas, and having abased 
himself before Carranza, and having aided in placing Car- 
ranza in power, what is Mr. Wilson's reward ? and who pays 
it? The reward is that Mr. Wilson has to place 150,000 
troops on the border to partially prevent the raids and mur- 
ders that his friend Mr. Carranza will not or can not prevent ; 
and the payment is made by the soldiers who are slain and 
by the families of the guardsmen who go in want because 
their husbands and fathers have been called to the border 
to make good Mr. Wilson's refusal to let the regular army 
administer such punishment to the bandits as to inspire in 
them a healthy fear. Instead, Mr. Wilson's course has been 
such as to encourage them into a feeling of boastful im- 
punity. Mr. Wilson's course has been precisely like that of 
a police commissioner who declined to permit his policemen 
to use their night sticks against burglars, and instead in- 
sisted that the householders should sit up all night so as to 
scare the burglars away. 

If You Must Hit, Hit Hard 

It should be a cardinal rule of conduct in international, 
as in individual, affairs never to hit if hitting can possibly 
be avoided ; but never under any circumstances to hit soft. 
Mr. Wilson has been engaged in continual hitting. But 
he has always hit soft. And whenever his opponent has hit 



Duty First 21 

back he has promptly dropped his arms,' stopped hitting, 
and taken refuge in platitudes about peace, non-intervention 
and humanity. Where, however, his opponent was suffi- 
ciently weak, as in the case of Haiti, he has dropped these 
platitudes, and has (with "blood-spilling") intervened. 
Haiti did not behave as badly to us as Mexico behaved ; but 
Mr. Wilson intervened, fought the Haitiens, shedding their 
blood and the blood of our troops, took possession, and now 
has our armed forces in control of Haiti and directing its 
government. His course of action in Haiti can be defended 
only if his course of action in Mexico is unqualifiedly con- 
demned! for such action was far more needed in Mexico 
than in Haiti. But there was a difference in the two cases ; 
and to Mr. Wilson it was a vital difference. Haiti was 
weaker than Mexico. No one was afraid of Haiti. 

It is not a pleasant task to point out these lamentable 
failures in our foreign policy during the last few years. If 
they were unimportant to the nation, if they only affected 
Mr. Wilson personally, I would gladly keep silent about 
them. If they were isolated and exceptional, I would pass 
them by. But they are typical of the policy of drift to 
which this nation has been committed during these great 
and terrible years when we have needed at the helm a firmer 
hand than at any other time since the Civil War. If the 
policy of drift is sanctioned by the nation, and is permitted 
for a sufficient length of time, we shall surely face national 
shipwreck. 

Wilson's Policy Is One of Drift and Spineless Failure 

We are told that the mass of the voters, the mass of the 
American people, will approve the policy of the Administra- 
tion, the policy of drift, the policy of spineless failure to do 
our duty to ourselves and to others because they believe 
in "safety first." Such being the case, it is worth while 
examining just what "safety" or "safety first" means, and 
how far a policy based only on considerations of safety is 
materially advantageous and morally justifiable. 

Safety First 

To treat "safety" as an indispensable element of any 
continuous national policy is eminently proper. It is indis- 



22 Americanism and Preparedness 

pensable to wisdom that we shall shape our military policy 
so as to make ourselves — our home country, our canal zone, 
all our islands — absolutely safe against successful attack 
by any great European or Asiatic military power. To this 
extefit safety coincides with duty. But this ultimate safety 
in the future is to be obtained, not by shirking, but by per- 
forming, our duty in the present. When President Wilson 
two years ago assured the American nation that there was 
no need for preparedness, no need for worry about our mili- 
tary shortcomings, no need for self-sacrifice and effort in 
order to make good these shortcomings, he was sacrificing 
our future safety to considerations of momentary political 
popularity obtained by pandering to popular desire for the 
enjoyment of material ease, and the avoidance of effort and 
of serious facing of duties. Mr. Wilson then put "safety 
first" as compared to duty; but he put it last as compared 
to momentary enjoyment of ease and material pleasures, 
and lazy refusal to face facts. I hold that this was exactly 
the reverse of what he ought to have done. I hold that 
it is our clear duty to sacrifice some of our present ease and 
soft enjoyment of material things in order to guarantee our 
future national safety. I hold that we should provide for 
the ample safeguarding of the heritage which our fathers 
left us and which our children should receive from us undi- 
minished. I therefore believe, as I have before said, that 
not only should we provide a big and efficient navy and a 
small and efficient regular army, but that we should also 
provide for a system of obligatory military training of our 
young men, on the Swiss and Australian models. With all 
my heart I believe in insuring the safety that can only come 
through the full performance of duty, by the exercise of 
courage and forethought under the compulsion of a high 
sense of honor and patriotism. 

This Is No Time for Flabby Ease 
But this is not in the least what Mr. Wilson's advocates 
mean when they ask us to support him, because he and 
they are for "safety first." They are for the unworthy 
safety that is merely obtained by the abandonment of duty. 
They are for the momentary safety which shortsighted men 
secure when they purchase escape from present risk and 



Duty First 23 

effort at the cost of future disaster. They are for the 
"safety" of each man to spend his time in money-making 
and in flabby ease, at the cost of remaining untrained and 
unfit to render service to the nation in the nation's hour 
of need. They are for the mean safety which this nation 
secured when it treated The Hague Conventions, which it 
had signed, like scraps of paper and declined to make even 
a protest on behalf of tortured Belgium. They are for the 
safety this nation temporarily secured by tame submission 
to the murder of its men, women and children on land by 
Mexican bandits, and at sea in the Lusitania and similar 
cases by German submarines. This kind of "safety first" 
means duty last, honor last, courage last. I do not believe 
in it. I believe that it is obtained at the cost of moral 
degradation in the present and at the risk of national ruin 
in the future. 

In Maine there are many seafaring folks. I can illus- 
trate what I mean about the use and abuse of the word 
safety by the life-saving service. This is a service especially 
designed to secure greater safety for ships' crews, and gen- 
erally for persons whose lives are imperiled on the water. 
It is a service to secure safety. But the safety is secured 
only because some brave men are willing to risk their own- 
lives in order to save other lives. They do not put "safety 
first," as far as they themselves are concerned. If they 
did, no lifeboat would ever be launched from a life-saving 
station. But the men on a sinking ship who crowd into the 
life-boats ahead of the women and children do put "safety 
first." I will say this for them, however: Whenever they 
get ashore they do not wear buttons to commemorate the 
feat — as some of our opponents in the present campaign do. 

Life-saving medals are granted every year. Each medal 
means that a life has been saved ; and each means also that 
in order to save it another life has been put in jeopardy. The 
"safety first" class does not get such medals. Every life- 
saving crew is composed of men who are tough, hardy and 
well-trained. They put safety first as far as self-indulgence., 
and soft ease, and mere money-getting are concerned ; other- 
wise they would be helpless in a storm. But where duty 
and safety are concerned, they put duty first and safety last. 



24 Americanism and Preparedness 

Put Duty, Not Safety, First 

I wish to see this nation act in similar fashion, both 
as regards its own safety and as regards the performance 
of international duty. I wish to see it, by forethought, by 
effort and hard training, and by the cultivation of a broad 
and intense feeling of national endeavor and national 
patriotism, to so develop its courage and its efficient strength 
as to be able to hold its own against any possible aggression ; 
and then I wish to see it put duty first, not safety first, when 
any small, well-behaved people is treated as Belgium has 
been treated. I stand for the safety that is obtained by the 
performance of duty. I do not stand for the safety that is 
obtained by the sacrifice of duty. 

I believe that when the American people realize that 
the issue is squarely before them they will put duty first 
and not safety first; and I believe that only by so doing 
will they secure real and ultimate safety. I believe that 
they will support a policy of national action demanding 
a spirit of national courage. The American peoplB are at 
heart moral idealists and enthusiasts ; and in the past they 
have again and again responded to some appeal for practical 
action, calling for idealism to perceive it and enthusiasm 
and self-devotion in order to achieve it. 

The men who came across the ocean in the seventeenth 
century to found here a new nation were men of courage and 
energy inspired by idealism and enthusiasm. Under that 
inspiration they attempted and accomplished the American 
Revolution ; and later entered on the experiment of self- 
government, founding a new nation "conceived in liberty 
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are equal." 
There were men of little faith among them, men of the 
"safety first" type, of the professional pacifist type; but 
in the end our forefathers rejected the leadership of these 
men, and *f ollowed the leadership of Washington. 

Since then our population has been swollen by immigra- 
tion; and our immigrants have generally been men of cour- 
age, energy and enterprise; a large proportion have been 
men of moral enthusiasm. They dared to leave the old world 
on the chance of starting a new life for themselves and 
their children under new conditions. On the whole the 



Duty First 25 

men and women who were called to our shores were the 
picked men and women of their countries. A nation drawing 
its blood from such sources is fundamentally sound, and 
in the end it will support a plan which combined practical 
action with genuine idealism. 

Lincoln's Answer in 1860 

In 1860 the question whether the American people 
would allow the indefinite extension of slavery on the 
American continent became acute. Conservatism said, Let 
well enough alone; timidity said, Let us have peace; busi- 
ness interests said. Safety first; the spirit of pacifism said, 
Let us compromise, for the evils of slavery are not to be 
compared with the evils of civil war and possible dissolution 
of the Union. 

To these arguments, so plausible that apparently they 
carried the great majority of the Nation and had the sup- 
port of multitudes of the best men both in church and 
State, Abraham Lincoln answered in his Cooper Union 
Speech : "Either slavery is right or wrong ; if it is right, we 
ought to do. all that the South asks of us; if it is wrong, we 
have no right to allow it in the territory under our control." 
To this principle he adhered through the political campaign 
which elected him, through the dark and dangerous days of 
the interregnum after his election, and through all the 
tragedy of the Civil War. The American people responded 
to the appeal and sustained in practical fashion the great 
moral principle Lincoln set forth and embodied. They put 
duty first and safety second. I do not believe that we of 
this generation have sunk so far below our sires as to be 
incapable of responding in similar fashion to a similar ap- 
peal. 

. In 1896 Mr. Bryan initiated the campaign for Free 
Silver. He was a popular speaker. The arguments for 
Free Silver were popular, and indeed plausible. They were : 
Our bonds are payable in coin; why substitute gold? If 
silver has depreciated, gold has appreciated; why sacrifice 
the debtor class to the gold bugs ? Recognized experts have 
declared in favor of bi-metallism. Why abandon it? Why 
ask the consent of Europe to continue it? Why not go it 



26 Americanism and Preparedness 

alone? The simple answer was, It is not right for a nation 
to pay its debts to the world in anything less than the 
world's currency. As fairly representing the national con- 
viction which led to the national action, I quote a state- 
ment at the time by a noted clergyman : "It is rarely morally 
wise to do to another what he thinks unjust. It is never 
morally right to enter on a course of action as to the justice 
of which the actor is himself in doubt. These principles are 
as applicable to nations as to individuals." It was right to 
show that free silver would bring material disaster to the 
nation; but it was primarily the moral appeal to the con- 
science of the people which defeated Mr, Bryan in 1896. 

Our Duty in Cuba and the Philippines 

In 1898 the conditions in Cuba had become unbearable 
to the American people. When full knowledge was ob- 
tained of what had been done in the island it raised in this 
country a storm of moral indignation which was irresistible. 
The argument of the pacifists at that time was the same as 
the argument of the pacifists of to-day. They varied be- 
tween an unhealthy sentimentality and a still more un- 
healthy materialism. They said that we were not concerned 
with the injustice practised by a foreign government on a 
foreign people; that it was no business of ours; that the 
Cubans should be permitted to fight their own battles ; and 
that the "blood spilling" in Cuba was not our affair. The 
answer then was the answer we ought to make now. We 
are our brother's keeper; injustice, whenever and wherever 
perpetrated, does concern us ; and whether we act or not, no 
considerations of self-interest should prevent our legitimate 
expression of that concern. 

Then followed the question of the Philippines. The ar- 
guments of the so-called anti-imperialists were much like 
the arguments of the pacifists of to-day. Again they varied 
between an unhealthy sentimentality and an even more un- 
healthy materialism. They said that the Philippines were 
on the other side of the globe, and would never repay what 
they cost us in money ; that serving the Filipinos would not 
offset the sacrifice of the lives of American soldiers; and 
they alternately advocated letting the Germans or Japanese 



Duty First 27 

take the islands, and letting the islanders take care of them- 
selves, and spill as much blood as they desired. The an- 
swer was in spirit identical with the answer of Abraham 
Lincoln to the pacifists of 1860 : For we said that we owed 
a duty to the people we had set free, and would not abandon 
them to anarchy and chaos. Again we appealed primarily 
not to the pocket, but to the conscience ; not to self-interest, 
but to the sense of honor, of the American people. Again 
the appeal was successful. 

An Opiate to Idealism 

Since 1912 we have had four years of a policy which 
has been an opiate to the spirit of idealism. It has meant the 
relaxation of our moral fibre. Horror of war, combined with 
a sordid appeal to self-interest and to fear, has paralyzed 
the national conscience. We have been told that Americans, 
if they do not wish to be killed, should leave Mexico and 
should keep off the ocean; that to save a few American 
lives it is not worth while to hazard the lives of American 
soldiers; that Mexicans should be allowed to spill blood to 
their hearts' content; that the European War is no concern 
of ours; that even as between Belgium and Germany we 
should be neutral not only in act but in sympathy. Not 
once has President Wilson squarely placed before the 
American people the question which Abraham Lincoln put 
before the American people in 1860: What is our duty? 
Not once has he appealed to moral idealism, to the stern en- 
thusiasm of strong men for the right. On the contrary, he 
has employed every elocutionary device to lull to sleep our 
sense of duty, to make us content with words instead of 
deeds, to make our moral idealism and enthusiasm evap- 
orate in empty phrases instead of being reduced to concrete 
action. America as a nation has been officially kept in a 
position of timid indifference and cold selfishness. America, 
which sprang to the succor of Cuba in 1898, has stood an idle 
spectator of the invasion of Belgium, of the sinking of the 
Lusitania, of the continued slaughter of our own citizens, 
and of the reign of anarchy, rapine and murder in Mexico. 



28 Americanism and Preparedness 

American Rights and American Duty Were Relegated 

Nevertheless I believe that the American people were 
ready for the same kind of appeal which was made to them 
by Abraham Lincoln in 1860, by the advocates of an honest 
currency in 1896, by the advocates of the Spanish War in 
1898, by the advocates of Nationalism in 1900. But the 
appeal was not made. On the contrary, Mr. Wilson invoked 
the spirit of timidity and selfishness. He made no effort 
to invoke the sense of duty. He put "safety first," the imme- 
diate safety of the moment, to be obtained by shrinking 
from duty. He did not even put American rights first, still 
less did he put American duty first. 

Wilson Could Have Averted Massacre and Rapine 

His task was not an especially difficult or dangerous 
task ; but it needed a brave heart and a steady hand. Under 
his lead America could and should have put itself at the head 
of all the neutral nations, by its example if not by direct 
diplomatic agreements, in demanding that the war should 
be conducted in accordance with the usage of civilized na- 
tions, that international law should be observed, that the 
rights of neutrals and non-combatants should be respected. 
If this spirit had animated our administration there would 
probably have been no invasion of Belgium, no fears of a 
like fate to terrorize other smaller nations, no torpedoing of 
merchant vessels, no bombarding of churches and hospitals, 
no massacreing of women and children, no murder of Miss 
Cavell, no attempted extermination of the Armenians and 
Syrian Christians. We cannot undo what has been done. 
But we can repudiate what has been done. We can regain 
our own self-respect and the respect of other nations for 
this country. We can put in power an administration which 
will throughout its term of power protect our own citizens 
and live up to our national obligations. 

It is just that this nation should concern itself with its 
rights; but it is even more necessary that it should con- 
cern itself with its duties. As between Mr. Hughes and Mr. 
Wilson, who can doubt which is the man who will with 
austere courage stand for the national duty? Mr. Wilson's 
words have contradicted one another ; and all his words have 



Duty First 29 

been contradicted by his acts. Mr, Wilson's promise has 
not borne the slightest reference to his performance. We 
have against him in Mr. Hughes a man whose public life is 
a guarantee that whatever he says he will make good, and 
that all his words will be borne out by his deeds. Against 
Mr, Wilson's combination of grace in elocution with futility 
in action ; against his record of words unbacked by deeds or 
betrayed by deeds, we set Mr. Hughes' rugged and uncom- 
promising straightforwardness of character and action in 
every office he has held. We put the man who thinks and 
speaks directly, and whose words have always been made 
good, against the man whose adroit and facile elocution is 
used to conceal his plans or his want of plans. The next 
four years may well be years of tremendous national strain. 
Which of the two men do you, the American people, wish 
at the helm during these four years ; the man who has been 
actually tried and found wanting, or the man whose whole 
career in public office is a guarantee of his power and good 
faith ? But one answer is possible ; and it must be given by 
the American people through the election of Charles Evans 
Hughes as President of the United States. 



WORDS AND DEEDS 
Battle Creek, Michigan, September 30, 1916 



AT the outset I wish to say a word as to the protests now 
made by so many people that we must not criticize the 
President. The newspapers and individuals making these 
protests are, for the most part, the very ones who and 
which when I was President spread every species of 
calumny and slander about me. I then, as President, took 
the view that no one had a right to speak untruthfully of 
the President or of anyone else, but that even less than any- 
one else ought the President to escape from truthful criti- 
cism. I never complained of any attack on me unless it 
was false, and if it was false, and the man making it was 
important enough, I clearly showed its falsity. I apply to 
others only the standard by which I asked that I myself 
be treated. It is the standard explicitly set in reference 
to myself by Mr. Charles Bonaparte on May 2, 1902, in his 
speech to the Civil Service Reform Association of Maryland. 
Speaking of me, the then President, he said : "Give him Hail 
Columbia (not to speak of any thing less suitable for public 
mention) when he does aught that savors of that abuse of 
public trust for personal or party ends which he has himself 
so often and so strenuously condemned ; if he is the man 
some of us think him, he will think all the better of us for 
doing this ; but whatever he or anybody else may think, it 
is the right thing for us to do, and we have no business here, 
this Association and its fellows have no warrant for further 
existence, unless we are ready to do it. Moreover, although 
we should, so far as may be practicable in reason, learn all 
material facts bearing on the conduct of a public servant 
before we blame him, there is no call for encyclopaedic 
research into minute details to justify outspoken censure, 
when this appears, on a fair, sober, second thought, well 
deserved. It is the President's duty, no less than it was 

30 



Words and Deeds 31 

Mrs. Caesar's, to escape reasonable suspicion of wrong- 
doing; should he or any other official tell us: 'If you knew 
the facts, you wouldn't blame me,' we have a ready answer : 
'Give us the facts, and we'll see.' " 

I at the time emphatically endorsed this position of Mr. 
Bonaparte's, who himself later served in my Cabinet. His 
attitude was the proper one to take towards the then Presi- 
dent; and it is the proper one to take towards the present 
President. 

I never uttered one word of criticism of President 
Wilson until a year and a half after he was elected Presi- 
dent. If he had stood by the honor and the interest of the 
American people, I would have thrown up my hat for him, 
and would have supported him heart and soul. I not 
merely kept silent during the first eighteen months ; 
I tried actively to support him. The only errors I have 
made in connection with Mr. Wilson were due to incau- 
tiously accepting his statements and supporting his policies 
in the effort to "stand by the President." It was with deep 
reluctance that I was forced to the conclusion that the effort 
to stand by him was incompatible with standing by the in- 
terests of mankind and the honor of this nation. But in my 
view there was no alternative for any honorable man, when 
once I became convinced, as I am convinced, that the con- 
science of this people has been seared, and its moral sense 
dulled, by the leadership of the Administration and of Con- 
gress during the last three years. These false servants of 
the people have taught us to enjoy soft ease and swollen 
wealth in the present without taking one effective step to 
ward off ruinous disaster in the future. These false serv- 
ants of the people have betrayed the soul of the nation. 

We Had War Under Washington and Lincoln 

The supporters of Mr. Wilson say that the American 
people should vote for him because he has kept us out of 
war. It is worth while to remember that this is a claim 
that cannot be advanced either on behalf of Washington or 
of Lincoln. Neither Washington nor Lincoln kept us out 
of war. Americans, and the people of the world at large, 
now reverence the memories of these two men, because, and 



32 Americanism and Preparedness 

only because, they put righteousness before peace. They 
abhorred war. They shunned unjust or wanton or reckless 
war. But they possessed that stern valor of patriotism 
which bade them put duty first, not safety first ; which bade 
them accept war rather than an unrighteous and disastrous 
peace. There were peace-at-any-price men in the days of 
Washington. They were the Tories. There were peace-at- 
any-price men in the days of Lincoln. They were the 
Copperheads. The men who now, with timid hearts and 
quavering voices, praise Mr. Wilson for having kept us out 
of war are the spiritual heirs of the Tories of 1776, and 
the Copperheads of 1864. The men who followed Washing- 
tion at Trenton and Yorktown, and who suffered with him 
through the winter at Valley Forge ; and the men who wore 
the blue under Grant, and the Gray under Lee, were men of 
valor, who sacrificed everything to serve the right as it was 
given them to see the right. They spurned with contempt- 
uous indignation the counsels of the feeble and cowardly 
folk who m their day spoke for peace-at-any-price. 

The Murder of Americans Has Been Invited 

President Wilson by his policy of tame submission to 
insult and injury from all whom he feared has invited 
the murder of our men, women and children by Mexican 
bandits on land, and by German submarines on the sea. 
He has spoken much of the "New Freedom." In interna- 
tional practice this has meant freedom for the representa- 
tives of any foreign power to murder American men, and 
outrage American women, unchecked by the President. 
President Wilson has counted upon his belief that the 
American people are indifferent to their duties, because they 
are too much absorbed in war profits, too much pleased with 
the unhealthy prosperity which flourishes because others are 
suffering ; too greedily content with a momentary immunity 
from danger, due to the fact that all possible foes are other- 
wise engaged. He has believed that our people will not look 
ahead. He has believed that they will remain blind to the 
fact that disaster will surely in the end overtake them if 
they shirk their duties in the present. He believes that if 
they are allowed to enjoy good profits and high wages, and 



Words and Deeds 33 

go to the movies, and purchase automobiles, they will pay 
no thought to the possibility of future ruin, and no thought 
to the sufferings of their fellow-countrymen and country- 
women who, at the present moment, suffer the last extremi- 
ties of torture and outrage. 

Porter Emerson Browne has shown exactly the way in 
which we are looked at abroad in a recent statement which 
runs as follows: 

"An American friend of mine attended a dinner given 
in Mexico by the erstwhile revolutionist thereof, Pascual 
Orozco. Pascual was puzzled. He asked my friend to ex- 
plain that which so mystified him. 'We have robbed your 
men, dishonored your women, killed your children ; tell 
me,' pleaded Pascual, 'what does an American need to make 
him fight?' Pascual, you see, being only an ignorant 
Mexican, couldn't understand why . a wife or a couple of 
children more or less meant little when you have a new 
automobile and a fat bank account." 

Consider Mr. Wilson's Statements 

I do not ask you to take my statement for Mr. Wilson's 
motive and actions. I ask you only to consider his own 
statements, and the statements of his authorized representa- 
tives, and his actions, and above all, his constant inaction. 
Nearly one year and a half has passed since the Lusitania 
was sunk. The act represented the most colossal single 
instance of the murder of non-combatants, including men, 
women and children, that had been perpetrated by any 
power calling itself civilized for over a century. President 
Wilson had full notice as to what was to be done, for the 
German Ambassador, Mr. Von Bernstorff, had publicly 
given such notice to the people of the United States. For 
less than such action President George Washington, when 
ours was a weak, infant nation, forced the recall of the 
French Ambassador, Genet. But President Wilson did not 
act. He only spoke. And his words were a direct incite- 
ment to the repetition of the wrong. For immediately after 
the sinking of the Lusitania he uttered his famous sentence 
about being "Too proud to fight." In all our history there 
has never been any other American President who has used 



34 Americanism mid Preparedness 

a phrase that has done such widespread damage to the good 
name of America. It is one of those dreadful phrases which, 
as by a lightning flash, illumines the soul of the man 
using it, and remains forever fixed in the .minds of mankind 
in connection with that man. But this is not all. When the 
man is President of the United States, it is a sad and dread- 
ful thing that the shame is necessarily shared by the na- 
tion itself; and it is completely assumed by the nation if it 
fails to repudiate the man who uttered the phrase. 

Imagine George Washington after the Lexington fight, 
or even after the Boston massacre, selecting the occasion 
as an appropriate one for remarking that the American 
people might be "Too proud to fight!" Imagine Abraham 
Lincoln making such a statement two days after the firing 
on Sumter! 

Nor was this phrase an isolated one. Shortly after- 
wards, under date of May 27th, the New York Times con- 
tained the statement that President Wilson declined an 
invitation to speak at Independence Hall on July 5th, and 
in response to a suggestion that he should only speak on 
patriotism, remarked : "This is perhaps the very time when 
I would not care to arouse the sentiment of patriotism." I 
call your attention to the fact that I take this statement 
from one of the most prominent Wilson papers. President 
Wilson refused to speak in Independence Hall on the one 
hundred and twenty-eighth anniversary of the signing of 
the Declaration of Independence in that hall, and he so re- 
fused because inasmuch as over one hundred of our men, 
women and children had just been murdered on the high 
seas he regarded it as "the very moment when he would not 
care to arouse the sentiment of patriotism." Mr. Wilson 
has a positive genius for striking when the iron is cold 
and fearing to strike when the iron is hot. If one hundred 
and twenty-eight years ago Washington and Jefferson, and 
the other men who signed the Declaration of Independence, 
had felt the same way about patriotism, and the same way 
about fighting as Mr. Wilson does, we would never have had 
a country. Had Lincoln felt the same way, there would 
be no such thing as the American Republic now in existence. 

Most assuredly, my fellow countrymen, the American 



Words and Deeds 35. 

Republic will not live, and will not deserve to live, if for the 
views of the men who signed the Declaration of Independ- 
ence on July 4th, 1776, we substitute as the basis of national 
action the views of the President who, one hundred and 
twenty-eight years later, declined to speak in commemora- 
tion of the day, because in a dangerous crisis it seemed to his 
cold heart unwise "to arouse the spirit of patriotism." 

Mr. Wilson's Deeds Contradict His Words 

The other day, discussing his refusal to recognize 
Huerta, President Wilson said in his speech of acceptance 
that he would refuse to recognize any "title based upon in- 
trigue and assassination," and that he would "refuse to 
extend the hand of welcome to any one who obtains power 
in a sister republic by treachery and violence." Fine words ; 
only, as usual, they are contradicted by Mr. Wilson's deeds. 
Let this statement about Huerta be tested by Mr. Wilson's 
record in exactly similar cases when dealing with other 
men. In February, 1914, at the very time he was refusing 
to recognize Huerta in Mexico, President Wilson recognized 
Colonel Benavides in Peru ; although Benavides had ob- 
tained his power by the exact means which Mr. Wilson de- 
nounced in the case of Huerta. The Government of Bena- 
vides was founded on assassination, and had no vestige of 
constitutional authority back of it. It came into power in 
February, 1914, when Colonel Benavides led the garrison 
troops against the President's palace, imprisoned the Presi- 
dent and assassinated the Minister of War and various 
others. Minister McMillan reported these facts fully to the 
President. The case against Benavides was far more fla- 
grant than that against Huerta ; but President Wilson boldly 
"extended the hand of welcome to the man who obtained 
power in a sister republic by treachery and violence, and 
whose title was based upon assassination and intrigue." 
It is absolutely impossible to accept Mr. Wilson's statement 
as a justification in the case of Huerta unless we admit that 
that very statement irretrievably condemns him in the case 
of Benavides. The only other explanation is that Mr. Wil- 
son's statement in the Huerta matter was not intended to 



36 Americanism and Preparedness 

correspond with the facts, but merely to impress well-mean- 
ing persons who were ignorant of the facts. 

In both San Domingo and Haiti President Wilson inter- 
vened by force on behalf of men who had obtained power 
precisely as Mr. Huerta obtained it. Indeed, in the case of 
Haiti, President Zamor was guilty of far worse conduct. 
But San Domingo and Haiti were weak and President Wil- 
son was willing to act as regards them as he did not venture 
to act in Mexico. 

But it is Mr. Wilson's recognition of Carranza which 
more than anything else applies the "acid test," of which 
Mr. Wilson is so fond of speaking, to Mr. Wilson's own 
allegations as to why he did not recognize Huerta. Every 
argument against Huerta applied with tenfold more truth 
and weight against Carranza. Immediately after Mr. Wil- 
son recognized Carranza, the latter courtmartialed and shot 
a former member of Huerta's cabinet, Garcia Granados, 
who had committed no crime whatever except having served 
in Huerta's cabinet. It was a deliberate murder of a man 
of good character who was at the time in private life; and 
Carranza had already permitted his followers to assassinate 
members of the House and members of the Senate of the 
Mexican Congress. For full particulars I refer you to the 
speech of Senator Fall on June 2d last. On. April 3d, 1915, 
the Americans resident in the City of Mexico sent to the 
Department of State a letter setting forth that Carranza's 
troops had without check by him, and acting by his orders, 
killed men, outraged women and raided churches. More- 
over, Mr. Wilson is himself a witness against his present 
ally. I refer you to the letter of Mr. Wilson's own Secretary 
of State of June 4 last. In this letter it is explicitly stated 
that Carranzista soldiers in September, 1915, invaded 
American territory at several different points, and engaged 
in burning and looting American property and killing 
American citizens ; and, says Mr. Wilson through his Secre- 
tary of State, "not only were these murders characterized 
by ruthless brutality, but uncivilized acts of mutilation were 
perpetrated." One of these "uncivilized" acts was commit- 
ted on September 29th, when some of Carranza's soldiers 
captured an American trooper, killed him and cut off his 



Words and Deeds 37 

head and ears. Exactly twenty days later, on October 19th, 
Mr. Wilson expressed "pleasure" in informing Carranza 
that he recognized him ! Since the recognition Carranza's 
troops by his orders have treacherously attacked and mur- 
dered American soldiers on at least two occasions. If the 
acts above recited — which are merely samples of the course 
of conduct Carranza had already pursued — do not constitute 
"intrigue and assassination, treachery and violence," then 
the words have lost their meaning. Mr. Wilson took "pleas- 
ure" in "extending the hand of welcome" to Carranza, whose 
own hand is red with the blood of murdered men and women 
of his own nation, and whose hands, unlike the hands of 
Huerta, were also red with the blood of murdered Ameri- 
cans, of murdered American civilians, and of murdered 
American soldiers wearing the American uniform. But 
President Wilson cared as little for the deaths of these men 
as he cared for the honor of the uniform. He with "pleas- 
ure extended the hand of welcome" to the man guilty of 
their murder. 

Note-sending Not a Success 

On September 5th there appeared in the newspapers a 
statement by Secretary of the Interior Lane, of Mr. Wilson's 
Cabinet, who is engaged in the humiliating and disgraceful 
negotiations Mr. Wilson's government is carrying on with 
the Mexican representatives at New London — and, by the 
way, as the former negotiations were said to be with the 
A, B, C powers, these negotiations, in view of the Mexican 
demands for money, might well be called the I. 0. U nego- 
tiations. Mr. Lane explained that in endeavoring to get a 
settlement the American delegates "will not resort to the 
note-sending plan," and he adds that "note-sending has not 
been a success." Mr. Lane is entirely right, and his state- 
ment is a condemnation of the entire diplomatic policy of 
the President in whose Cabinet he sits. The New York 
Times, under date of February 11th, stated that the claims 
of Americans and foreigners for the loss of property and 
life in Mexico now total about one billion dollars, of which six 
hundred millions are due to Americans, and the other four 
hundred millions to natives of Germany, England, France 



38 Americanism and Preparedness 

and Spain. The Times further mentioned that Mr. Lane 
had been told that the representatives of these powers re- 
garded the United States as obligated to make good their 
property losses, and to pay indemnity for the lives of their 
compatriots. 

It was also announced in the public press that one 
hundred million dollars was expended in General Pershing's 
expedition into Mexico, and that we are now expending 
fifteen million dollars a week to keep one hundred and fifty 
thousand men on the border of Mexico in order to enable 
Mr. Wilson to continue to wage peace with that country. 
It seems probable that the fruits of Mr. Wilson's policy in 
Mexico will be that we shall find ourselves saddled with a 
debt of a billion and a half dollars ; while already many more 
of our people have been killed than were killed in the war 
with Spain ; and our policy has been ruinous to Mexico, dis- 
honorable to ourselves, and infamous from the standpoint 
of humanity ; while not the slightest progress toward a per- 
manent settlement has been made. 

In dealing with foreign nations, if we are to retain our 
self-respect, and protect our citizens, the first essential is 
that when we speak it shall be understood that we mean 
what we say. In his speech at West Point on June 2d last. 
President Wilson said : "Mankind is going to know that 
when America speaks • she means what she says." Most 
emphatically mankind will never know this as long as Mr. 
Wilson is President. 

On August 27th, 1913, he directed the American Con- 
sul-General in Mexico to notify all Mexican officials that 
"they will be held strictly responsible for any injury done 
to any American, or for injury done to their property." On 
February 10th, 1915, he sent his first note to Germany as 
regards the use of submarines in sinking merchant vessels, 
warning Germany that in case an American vessel or the 
life of an American citizen should be destroyed by a German 
submarine, the United States would hold the Imperial Gov- 
ernment of Germany to "strict accountability." At the 
same time Secretary of State Bryan, according to his pub- 
lished statement, informed the Austro-Hungarian Ambassa- 
dor Dumba that the note was intended merely for "home 



Words and Deeds 39 

consumption," and was not to be taken seriously by Ger- 
many, and he reported his conversation to President Wilson, 
who approved of it. This makes an interesting gloss on Mr. 
Wilson's statement that "Mankind is going to know that 
when America speaks she means what she says," 

Ships Torpedoed Continually 

On March 28th, 1915, the steamship Falaba was tor- 
pedoed, and of the one hundred and eighteen persons 
drowned, two were Americans. On May 1st, 1915, the Gul- 
flight, an American vessel, was torpedoed without warning 
by a German submarine, and the lives of three persons on 
board lost. On May 7th the Lusitania was torpedoed, and 
thirteen hundred and ninety-six persons were drowned. 
But President Wilson did not "make mankind know that 
when America speaks she means what she says." On the 
contrary, he selected this as the appropriate occasion for his 
remark about being "too proud to fight." He did not hold 
Germany to strict accountability. He did not hold her to 
any accountability, strict or loose. He wrote notes. We 
have the authority of Mr. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, 
for the saying that "note-writing has not proved a success." 
President Wilson's first note to Germany was on May 13th. 
Germany answered it on May 25th by torpedoing the Ne- 
braskan, an American vessel. On June 9th, President Wil- 
son sent his second note, and on July 21st, a third. Ger- 
many answered these notes on August 19th by sinking the 
Arabic, drowning forty-one persons, including two Ameri- 
cans ; and on September 6th, the Hesperian, twenty-six 
persons being drowned, including two Americans. On De- 
cember 30th, the Persia was sunk, the number of lives lost 
being three hundred and thirty-eight, including two Ameri- 
cans, one of them a Consul-General. Other vessels have 
since been sunk. No atonement has been made by Ger- 
many ; and in more than one case the newspapers report 
that the captain of the submarine has been promoted or 
decorated as a reward. You ask me whether I would have 
"gone to war" in such a case? I believe that a firm policy — 
such a policy as I followed while I was President — would have 
kept us out of war — as it actually did while I was President. 



40 Americanism and Preparedness 

But, if in order to stop repeated murders of our men, women 
and children, and repeated outrages on our women, it had 
been necessary to fight, I would have fought on the drop 
of a hat. 

So much for the "strict accountability" to which Ger- 
many was to be held. The "strict responsibility" to which 
Mexico was to be held resulted in precisely a similar manner. 
While Germany was drowning between one and two hun- 
dred Americans, and a couple of thousand other noncom- 
batants who were at sea, the Mexicans were killing a some- 
what larger number of Americans, and a still larger number 
of other noncombatants on land. President Wilson did 
not hold Germany to "strict accountability" in one case, and 
did not hold Mexico to "strict responsibility" in the other. 
He did nothing whatever. Nobody has been punished for 
the lives lost. 

Mr. Wilson's Words Mean Nothing 

In President Wilson's speech of acceptance, he said 
that "the loss of life is irreparable," and that the "direct 
violation of a nation's sovereignty" stands on a similar 
plane, and that "the nation that violates these essential 
rights must expect to be checked and called to account by 
direct challenge and resistance." Words ! Very fine words ! 
They would have meant much if Andrew Jackson had spoken 
them. But from Mr. Wilson they mean absolutely nothing. 
"Mankind knows that when America speaks" through Presi- 
dent Wilson she does not mean what she says, and will take 
no action. Mr. Wilson never ventured for one moment to 
"call to account by direct challenge and resistance" either 
Germany or even Mexico. He says quite properly that "the 
loss of life is irreparable." Therefore, it was his solemn 
duty to prevent the loss of life. On February 10th he issued 
his strict accountability note. On March 28th, the Falaba 
was torpedoed. If he had then made good his words; if 
he had immediately held Germany to strict accountability, 
not one of the subsequent sinkings would have taken place. 
The Lusitania, the Arabic, the Persia, the Sussex, and the 
other vessels would be afloat, and twenty-three hundred 
men, women and children would be alive. They lost their 



Words and Deeds 41 

lives because President Wilson did not venture to call "to 
account by direct challenge and resistance" Imperial Ger- 
many. He did not dare to make his words good. 

President Wilson says in his speech of acceptance that 
he is "more interested in the fortunes of oppressed men and 
pitiful women and children than in any property rights 
whatever." President Wilson sent note after note to Eng- 
land protesting against interference with property rights ; 
and he has just taken action on behalf of property rights, 
against France and England, which if he had really thought 
about it in advance, and meant what he said, might very 
well lead to the most serious consequences with these pow- 
ers. If it does not have this effect it will be because Mr. 
Wilson's words will again be left unbacked by deeds. This 
action by Mr. Wilson would be entirely proper and necessary 
if he had taken the right position on behalf of Belgium and 
had exacted prompt atonement for the murder of our men, 
women and children by German submarines. But it is 
improper when he has done none of these things. It is 
sardonic evidence that, if he thinks a political purpose is to 
be served, he will instantly show far more "interest" in 
"property rights" than in "the fortunes of oppressed men 
and pitiful women and children," whether in Louvain or 
Lille, in the United States or in Mexico, or on the high seas 
or anywhere else. If he had really shown by his deeds dur- 
ing the past two years an effective and determined purpose 
to protect our own "pitiful women and children" and all 
other "oppressed" people, if he had been their resolute and 
successful champion, it would now be his clear duty to take 
straightforward and effective action against any improper 
interference with our mails and merchandise, whether by 
blacklist, by the exercise of the right of search or otherwise. 
If he had thus acted in the past on behalf of human rights, 
it would be eminently proper to stand up for our property 
rights now. But the action actually taken by the President 
of the United States convicts us as a nation, in the eyes of 
other nations, and above all, in our own eyes, as being guilty 
of hypocritical insincerity in the whole matter. If the 
President had begun, two years ago, effectively and actively 
to prepare our military and naval strength, and if he 



42 Americanism and Preparedness 

had meant what he said, and had clearly shown that he 
meant what he said, we would have rendered real service to 
mankind, we would have safeguarded all our rights, we 
would have been a potent force for peace, and we would 
have preserved unstained our national honor. As it is, 
we have earned the derision of mankind by our policy of 
mixed bluster, hypocrisy, and unpreparedness, and we have 
come perilously near to drifting into a position where we 
would have to face the alternatives of a humiliating 
backdown or else a war for which we were unprepared. 
President Wilson never looks ahead either when he utters 
threats or when he utters fine phrases about humanity. In 
the present instance we may or may not have trouble. Prob- 
ably we shall avoid it, because it is probable that in the 
end Mr. Wilson will follow his usual course of submitting 
to wrongdoing by every one, instead of standing up for our 
rights and the rights of humanity against every one. 

Mexico offers the most striking instance of contrast be- 
tween words and deeds on the part of our government. Mr. 
Wilson speaks loftily on behalf of "oppressed men and pitiful 
women" in the abstract ; but when the forces of Carranza 
and Villa murdered American men, and outraged American 
women, acting under the direct authority of their leaders, 
Mr. Wilson made no effective protest of any kind ; and in his 
speech of acceptance he has actually apologized for these 
men on the ground that they "represented at least the fierce 
passions of reconstruction which lies at the very heart of 
liberty." It is difficult to speak .patiently of such an utter- 
ance, when we remember the infamy which it covers, and 
the abject submission to infamy for which it seeks to 
apologize. 

President Wilson says that he is "interested in the 
fortunes of pitiful women and children." On the Lusitania 
there were drowned 103 babies under two years of age ; fifty 
of them being babies under one year of age. How did Mr. 
Wilson's "interest" in these pitiful women and children show 
itself? It showed itself by the statement just two days later 
about being "Too proud to fight." It showed itself in his 
statement a little over two weeks later to the effect that it 
was inexpedient then to arouse the spirit of patriotism. Let 



Words and Deeds 43 

him square these acts with these words of his. Let him 
square these words with his professions of "interest" in 
the fortunes of "pitiful women and children," Let him 
square his absolute failure to take any action whatever with 
his statements that any "nation that violates our essential 
rights must be checked and called to account by direct chal- 
lenge and resistance." Never in our history has there been 
such ignoble contrast between the words and the deeds of a 
chief executive. 

A Parallel for Mr. Wilson's Interest in Oppressed Men 

There is, however, a parallel for the kind of interest and 
concern President Wilson has thus shown for "oppressed 
men and pitiful women and children." But we have to go 
for it, not to history, but to fiction. His attitude recalls that 
of the walrus in "Alice Through the Looking Glass," who 
took the oysters out to walk on the beach, and then ate 
them up. While eating them the walrus bewailed their fate ; 
and his words, emotions and actions are thus described : 

"I weep for you, the walrus said, 

I deeply sympathize ; 
With sobs and tears he sorted out 

Those of the largest size. 
Holding his pocket handkerchief 

Before his streaming eyes." 

Mr. Wilson's Weasel Words 

As on almost every question President Wilson has occu- 
pied at least two diametrically opposite positions, we can 
usually find in some of his words an outline of the position 
we ought to have taken ; but almost without exception, these 
fine words have had the meaning weaseled out of them by 
other words; and usually there have been no deeds what- 
ever. Take, as an instance, the question of preparedness, 
and of the means necessary to secure it. In the fourteen 
months extending from December 8th, 1914, to February 
10th, 1916, there were fifteen messages, letters and speeches 
of President Wilson which I have read. In these fifteen 
messages, letters and speeches, during those fourteen 
months, President Wilson took forty-one diflferent positions 



44 Americanism and Preparedness 

about preparedness and the measures necessary to secure 
it; and each of these forty-one positions contradicted from 
one to six of the others. In many of his speeches the weasel 
words of one portion of the speech took all the meaning out 
of the words used in another portion of that speech ; and 
these latter words themselves had a weasel significance as 
regards yet other words. He argued for preparedness, and 
against preparedness. He stated that our army was ample ; 
and that we did not have enough troops to patrol the Mexi- 
can border in time of peace. He said the world was on fire, 
and that sparks were liable to drop anywhere and cause us 
to burst into flame ; and he also said that there was no sud- 
den crisis ; and then again that he did not know what a single 
day would bring forth. He said that we were on the verge 
of a maelstrom ; and then that there was no special or criti- 
cal situation. He said the danger was constant and imme- 
diate ; and also that we were not threatened from any 
quarter. He said that there was no fear among us ; and 
also that we were in daily danger of seeing the vital interest 
and honor of the country menaced and the flag of the United 
States stained with impunity. He said that we were in very 
critical danger of being involved in the great European 
struggle; and also that there was no need to discuss the 
question of defense, or to get nervous or excited about it. In 
one and the same speech, he said that a sufficient number of 
men would volunteer, and that if they did not he would be 
ashamed of America ; and he also said that he did not know 
of any law which laid upon them the duty of coming into 
the army, if it should be necessary to call for volunteers. 
He said that we needed 500,000 volunteers, and that if there 
was any legitimate criticism of this demand it was because 
it was too small ; and as soon as Congressman Hay objected 
to the plan, he promptly abandoned it. He said that the 
National Guard was not the proper body upon which to rely ; 
and then not only changed his own mind but forced his own 
Secretary of War out of his Cabinet because this Secretary 
possessed less flexible convictions and was unable instantly 
to reverse himself when going at full speed. 

When the President argued every which way, and stood 
on every side of every proposal, it was no wonder that Con- 



Words and Deeds 45 

gress was puzzled. Public opinion was not led by the Presi- 
dent. He followed it in sharp zig-zags, now in one direction, 
and now in another, as he believed it at the moment to be 
going. In consequence, the laws just passed for our military 
establishment have been positively mischievous, and they 
will have to be repealed or amended before any really good 
legislation can be adopted. The course of the administra- 
tion has so thoroughly discredited itself in the public mind, 
that it has been almost impossible to get recruits. I know 
of many old soldiers who have refused to re-enlist because 
of the unsatisfactory condition of our military laws at this 
moment, and above all, because of the shameful mishandling 
of the military forces during the past three years. If the 
recent rate of recruiting is a sample, it will take five years 
to increase our army by as much as twenty thousand men, 
allowing for the discharges. 

The Democrats and the Navy 

Six years ago, in 1910, as soon as the Democrats got 
possession of the House, they stopped work on the navy. 
From being the second naval power in the world in point of 
size, we have, during the last seven years, slipped down to 
being the fourth; and under Secretary Daniels, and thanks 
to the action of President Wilson, our efficiency reached its 
nadir. Now at last, and many years too late, the adminis- 
tration and the Democratic leaders in Congress have turned 
in panic, and are now seeking to build the navy. The plan 
they have authorized is, in effect, the plan for which I asked 
eight years ago in my message of April 14th, 1908, when I 
advocated the building of four super-dreadnoughts with, of 
course, other vessels in proportion. 

The difference is that I was wise before the event, and 
they after the event. They are now acting too late to have 
any effect upon our standing during the present war, or at 
the period of settlement immediately following its conclu- 
sion. If the course I advocated in 1908 had been followed 
and our foreign affairs had been handled as they were then 
being handled, there would never have been an American 
life taken by any representative of the governments of 
either Mexico or Germany ; and there would never have been 



46 Americanism and Preparedness 

the appalling carnival of violations of international law that 
we have seen during the past two years and a quarter. We 
cannot undo the mischief that has been done during these 
three years; but if President Wilson is re-elected, we can 
make certain that this mischief will be repeated and per- 
petuated. We must elect Mr. Hughes as President, and we 
must in good faith take a policy the direct reverse of the 
present policy of feeble vacillation and empty elocution. Let 
us provide for a great navy, the second in size in the world ; 
and let us provide for a regular army of a quarter of a mil- 
lion men, short service men, so that we can have one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand men who can be concentrated at once 
on the Mexican frontier, or on either coast, if there is serious 
trouble. And let us begin patiently and farsightedly to 
inaugurate in this country the system which treats the per- 
formance of the duties of citizenship as a necessary comple- 
ment to the enjoyment of the rights of citizenship. Let us 
provide for universal obligatory military training of all our 
young men in time of peace, and for the recognition of the 
principle that in time of war every man and every woman in 
the country is bound to render service wherever it is deemed 
that he or she can render it best. 

Mr. Hughes and Mr. Wilson 

I ask you to test the character and courage of Mr. 
Hughes and Mr. Wilson by comparing their attitudes as 
regards the demands of the railway brotherhoods, which 
culminated recently in the miscalled eight-hour legislation 
at Washington. 

During the last eighteen years, covering the period 
when I was Governor, and President, I have hitherto on 
every important issue supported the brotherhoods. I am 
very proud of the fact that I am an honorary member of 
one of the brotherhoods. I have publicly stated that during 
the ten years when I held high public office, I found myself, 
on the whole, in closer agreement with the Brotherhoods 
than with any similar organized body, whether of business 
men, professional men, or labor men ; with the possible ex- 
ceptipn of the members of the surgical and medical profes- 
sion, in so far as they can be said to be organized. But it is 



Words and Deeds 47 

the duty of every good American, and especially every good 
public servant, in each question that arises touching the rela- 
tions of labor and capital, to judge that particular question 
squarely on its merit. I equally abhor both the White 
Terror and the Red Terror, and I will stand as stoutly 
against one as against the other. We have seen in this 
country few things more discreditable to our representa- 
tives and more ominous for the future of the nation than 
the spectacle of the President and Congress of the United 
States being required to pass a certain bill before a certain 
hour at the dictation of certain men who sat in the gallery 
with their watches in their hands threatening ruin and dis- 
aster to the nation if there was the smallest failure to sat- 
isfy their demands. 

Conduct Should Be the Test 
As President I dealt at various times with both corpora- 
tions and labor unions. In every case, according to the best 
of my ability, I stood in favor of the corporation or union 
that was doing right, and against the corporation or union 
that was doing wrong. For example, I stood against the 
Western Federation of Miners at one time, jus-t as I stood 
against the richest and most powerful corporations of Wall 
Street at other times. I am therefore not asking any public 
servant to take a stand which I myself did not take when I 
was in public office. 

The Anthracite Coal Strike 

In particular I ask you to remember the Anthracite Coal 
Strike, because the menace that strike contained was even 
greater than the menace of a general tie-up of the trans- 
portation systems of the country ; for it meant the pos- 
sibility of actual death by cold to hundreds of thousands 
of our own people. At that time the great and wealthy 
mine owners, backed by the heads of the wealthiest 
and most powerful industrial and railroad corporations in 
the country, refused to arbitrate. The men struck. Winter 
was approaching, and fell disaster threatened all the East- 
ern half of our country. The representatives of the mine 
owners in response to my request insisted that there was 
nothing to arbitrate ; and through their counsel also insisted 
that I had no power under the Constitution to act, and that 



48 Americanism and Preparedness 

the public could not interfere, through the representatives 
of the public, with the way in which they managed their 
business. I took the opposite view. 

Public Need Placed First 

I held that where the public necessity was national and 
imperative, it became the duty of the chief of the nation 
to act. I held that in any such gigantic controversy be- 
tween labor and capital as to threaten the welfare of 
the nation, there were three parties in interest, viz.: 
the capitalists, the workingmen and finally the people 
as a whole; and that where the public need was 
vital, that need must control. I specifically took the view 
that before final action was taken on the points at issue, we 
must have full information, given to the public and the 
representatives of the public by an unbiased body after a 
thorough study of the situation ; that the power of the Gov- 
ernment must be used to make effective the findings of this 
body, and that, pending its finding, the work of mining must 
go on, because the public need so demanded ; and that there- 
fore I would use the entire power of the nation to see that 
the work went on, that there was an arbitration by dispas- 
sionate experts, and that the conclusions of this arbitration 
were accepted. When the mine owners, backed by the most 
powerful financial interests in New York, refused to arbi- 
trate, I proceeded to appoint an arbitration commission 
without regard to them, and I secured the assent of a politi- 
cal opponent, Mr. Cleveland, an ex-President of the United 
States, to serve as head of that commission. I saw the 
Lieutenant-General of the Army, and arranged with him 
that, if necessary, I would put the army in possession of the 
mines and would treat him as the receiver to run the mines, 
and to see that neither side interfered with the running. 
Fortunately, when it became evident that I would put my 
program through at no matter what hazard or difficulty, 
the hazards and difficulties both vanished, and I was able to 
secure an agreement for arbitration and for the return of 
the men to work pending the result of the arbitration. 
Eight-Hour Day Not at Issue 
I believe in labor unions. But I believe first and fore- 
most in liberty and justice obtained through the Union to 



Words and Deeds 49 

which all of us belong, the union of all the people of the 
United States. I believe in the eight-hour day as the genei^al 
rule toward which we must strive; but I recognize that 
special needs must be met in special industries ; and that in 
all such cases there must be very careful consideration of all 
the conditions before final action is taken. In this case, how- 
ever, the eight-hour day is not the issue. The issue is an 
increase of wages, given by law, without previous investiga- 
tion or knowledge. The principle of the eight-hour day is 
not at issue and is adroitly invoked merely to cloak the real 
issue. 

Eight hours may be the outside limit of proper work 
time in Mr. Ford's factory, where the man is all the time 
working at just one thing intensively, and without vacation ; 
but eight hours that includes periods of doing nothing but 
sit around, and also change of occupation, may not be long 
enough. Moreover, there are occupations of intermittent 
activity where to limit the total time on duty in any one day 
to eight hours would be an absurdity ; and there are others 
where excessive activity on one day is compensated for by 
complete leisure on the following day. 

Really a Wage-Increase Bill 

The case at issue is pre-eminently one that comes in the 
category of those that can be settled only after careful inves- 
tigation and full consideration of many important conflicting 
elements. I believe in the eight-hour day, on moral and 
sociological grounds, as being the ideal towards which we 
should strive. I believe in wages being just as high in any 
business as is compatible with square treatment to the other 
parties in interest. But if the Government is to intervene 
in order to secure shorter hours and better wages it must do 
so only after full knowledge and not merely under the duress 
of threats. Moreover, the issue must be honestly stated. 
The Government must not be used really to get higher 
wages, when the nominal and surface demand seems to be 
for fewer hours of labor. It appears that what in this case 
is demanded is not really a day of eight hours' labor, but a 
higher rate of pay for the eight hours, or a higher rate of 
overtime pay beyond eight hours. In other words, it is not 



50 Americanism and Preparedness 

a law to limit hours of labor in the sense that we use in 
speaking of an eight-hour day for women, or an eight-hour 
law for three shifts in continuous industry. It is primarily 
a bill to secure an advance in wages ; the securing of an 
eight-hour day is wholly secondary, and as regards many 
employees, would probably not be brought about or desired. 

Must Have Arbitration 

When any labor trouble becomes of such size as to 
involve the public, the public has a right to interfere, to 
insist that there shall be no interference with the welfare 
and safety of the public, and therefore to insist on arbitra- 
tion, that is, for just decision by the Government, after an 
investigation conducted through a commission which will 
get all the facts and lay them before the Executive and 
Legislative representatives of the public for what action 
they deem necessary. These were the principles which by 
actual deed, when I was President, I upheld in the teeth of 
violent opposition from the most powerful corporations in 
the land, representing the employers' interest. The opposi- 
tion of these great employing corporations was asserted in 
every possible way against me throughout the period when 
I held public ofRce or was a candidate for public office. I 
absolutely disregarded it, because I thought that only by 
disregarding it could I do my duty to the country. In just 
the same way, and from just the same motives, I shall now 
disregard any opposition by the representatives of mis- 
guided labor unions to the principles which I then put into 
effect, and which they then applauded me for putting into 
effect. As I said when I was President, I believe that the 
welfare of the laboring man, with the sole exception of the 
welfare of the farmer, is more important to this country 
than the welfare of any other citizen ; I shall do all I can to 
secure his permanent welfare ; I shall do everything in my 
power for the working man except what is wrong; but I 
will do wrong neither for him nor for any other man. 

Must Be One Law for All 

There must be but one law to be applied in these cases, 
and to be yielded to by all alike. To yield to the threats of a 



Words and Deeds 51 

great organized body of workers is just as evil and cowardly 
a thing in a public man as to yield to the influence of repre- 
sentatives of great organized capital; and in the long run 
just as dangerous to the country. It is a wicked and a peril- 
ous thing, without a hearing, without regard to the rights 
of the case, to burden the whole country, to tax the whole 
country, because a special benefit is demanded by a group 
of voters who can exert formidable political pressure, who 
threaten temporary inconvenience and damage, and who 
therefore cow timid or shifty politicians. Such wrongdoing 
by our public men will in the end be fraught with even 
greater mischief to the workers than to the capitalists, for 
if the policy of yielding to improper influence is substituted 
for the policy of justice, in the long run capital will exert an 
insidious force exceeding any that the labor unions can bring 
to bear. It has been well said that "Democracies cannot 
live if organized minorities can force them to unconsidered 
acts." Whether the arrogant disregard of justice and of the 
public weal is shown by organized capital or organized labor 
is of no consequence whatever. If either is permitted to 
intimidate the representatives of the people, the effect 
upon free institutions will be equally fatal. 

Action Without Knowledge 

The representatives of the brotherhoods nominally re- 
fused to submit the question to arbitration. What they really 
did was to insist upon action by Congress without previous 
investigation, without full knowledge, and indeed, without 
any knowledge. The President made their action his own. 
He therefore denied us full knowledge ; and all that we can 
say is that, with the knowledge before us at present, it ap- 
pears that the question at issue was not really that of an 
eight-hour day at all. but of an increase of wages. The 
demand was not that on freight trains eight hours should be 
made the day's work, but that eight hours should "be made 
the measure of a day's work for the purpose of receiving 
compensation," so that the men should receive the same 
wages that they now receive for ten hours' work ; and that 
provision should be made for overtime at about the rate of 
time and one-half. The passenger service was exempted. 



52 Americanism and Preparedness 

This was because of the high-speed basis of many passenger 
schedules, which means that many of the men on these 
trains complete their day's work in four or five hours, and 
that because of the mileage basis on which they are paid 
they may receive in one day pay for twenty hours' work 
although they do not work ten or even eight hours a day. 
Now, I wish it distinctly understood that I am not in the 
least prepared to say that this demand is wrong. It may be 
absolutely right. My point is that, without full investiga- 
tion we cannot say whether it is right or wrong. President 
Wilson yielded to the dictation of the heads of the brother- 
hoods, and made no effort to find out whether the demand 
was right or wrong. He made no effort to find out whether 
it could be complied with without raising freight rates. He 
made no effort to find out all the equities in the case ; those 
affecting the men, those affecting the stockholders, those 
affecting the shippers. He took his orders from that one of 
the parties in interest which he most feared. He insisted that 
the law be passed without inquiry. And then he deferred 
the operation of the law until after election, which, of course, 
could only have been done for political reasons. We have 
not at this moment any power to determine which side of 
the controversy is right, and which wrong. We do not know 
whether it is right to increase the wages without increasing 
the freight rates ; and whether in such event it is proper to 
the public that both the rates and wages shall be increased 
to the amount this bill will require ; or whether any increase 
in rates ought to be made ; or whether in the interest of the 
public neither wages nor rates should be increased. I be- 
lieve, from the standpoint of the public interest, in the 
proper limitation by law of the hours of work on railroads ; 
but it is essential that there shall be full knowledge and 
consideration of all the facts before determining exactly 
what the law shall be. 

The President and Congress Coerced 

The question at issue was not that of an eight-hour 
day at all. The question was whether the President and 
Congress should enact a law, without investigation and 
without knowledge, to give increased wages to a certain 



Words and Deeds 53 

portion of the body of wage earners. The labor leaders 
on this issue, without regard to the right or wrong of the 
matter, first coerced the President, and then with his aid 
coerced Congress. The question at issue was not one of 
hours of labor. It was one of wages. And it was set- 
tled by the President and Congress without investigation 
and without knowledge. The settlement was due partly 
to fear and partly to hope of political profit. President 
Wilson in his speech on the 23rd of this month sought to 
explain and justify his action. He stated his whole case 
with probably unconscious accuracy when he said that be- 
fore he undertook to settle the controversy he had "learned 
that the whole temper of the legislative bodies of the 
United States was in favor" of what one side announced 
to be its contention. In other words, he had made up his 
mind in advance; and he had made it up because he be- 
lieved the majority of the Congressmen (for the most part 
pure politicians) were on what they deemed to be the 
popular side. In this speech he explicitly admitted that in 
this controversy "the main partner was left out of the 
reckoning," because the two parties declined to consider 
"what rights had the hundred million people of the United 
States?" And President Wilson eagerly joined with these 
men in refusing to consider the rights of these hundred 
millions of people. President Wilson knows well that he 
has betrayed the rights of these people. He admits that 
when in the same speech, with his usual faculty for using 
fine words about the future when he desires to cover up 
mean deeds in the present, he says, "How are we going to 
prevent any organization from overriding the interests of 
society ? . . . America has the privilege to say : You must 
not interrupt the national life without consulting us." 
Exactly! Fine words! Words such as Mr. Wilson loves 
to use. And, as is customary with Mr. Wilson, these fine 
words of his about abstract rights are flatly contradicted 
by his unworthy deeds as soon as the concrete case arises. 
Mr. Wilson uses these lofty words about the future at the 
very time when he has made America submit to seeing "an 
organization override the interests of society," when by 
his action he has permitted this organization to "interrupt 



54 Americanism and Preparedness 

the national life without consulting us." Of course, it is a 
mere pretense to say that there is any sacred social reason 
why there is any greater reason to refuse to arbitrate the 
number of hours of labor than to refuse to arbitrate the 
amount of wages. And the question really at issue in 
this case does not really refer to the number of hjours of 
labor. It refers really to the rate of wages. What Mr. 
Wilson really did was to insist on legislation about the 
wage scale without any previous investigation or knowledge. 

Proper Course Abandoned 

For years the great railways insisted that they would 
not arbitrate such cases; that they- would not admit the 
right of the Government to interfere. Now at last they 
have been brought to admit that they will accept arbitra- 
tion. They admit the right and the duty of the National 
Government in the premises. Immediately thereupon Presi- 
dent Wilson and the majority in the two houses of Con- 
gress turn around, and in the momentary and evanescent 
interest of a small section of labor they abandon the great 
principle for which all the farsighted champions of labor 
have been fighting. They thereby put a premium upon the 
use of force, by threat or by action, in order to secure 
special privilege. They establish a most evil precedent, the 
consequences of which may be widespread and lasting. 

The Right Course 

There was but one course that could rightly have been 
taken, and that the perfectly simple course. The President 
had ample knowledge. He had many weeks in which to 
secure proper action by the parties to the controversy ; 
and if either would not agree to such action, he had ample 
time in which to get Congress to give him any power nec- 
essary in order to deal thoroughly and without difficulty 
with the situation. If the regular board of mediation and 
conciliation was inadequate, he should have at once ap- 
pointed a special commission, which would have included 
men thoroughly acquainted with the situation from the 
wage workers' standpoint, possessed of an understanding 
sympathy with the wage workers, and incapable of being 



Words and Deeds 55 

bullied or of being influenced in any improper manner. 
The President should have insisted that every matter be 
laid before this committee of arbitration, and nothing with- 
held. The commission would have dealt in thoroughgoing 
and satisfactory fashion with all the various questions in- 
volved — all of which are interrelated and interdependent. 
It would have dealt with the question of an eight-hour 
day, and with the complicated question of the amount of 
wages to be paid for that day and for overtime in the 
various positions. It would also have dealt with the ques- 
tion as to whether this necessarily meant a raise of rates. 
As an incident to this it would have had to take up the 
question of securing just renumeration to the property 
holders; and therefore it would have had to deal with any 
question of recent over-capitalization ; for although I do 
not believe it would be wise to take up old cases of 
over-capitalization (where grave injustice to innocent peo- 
ple would be caused by any action) any recent instance of 
over-capitalization should be accepted as having been gone 
into after full notice and with full knowledge, and should 
be punished accordingly. 

Pending the decisions of the commission, it should 
have been made clear that the President would permit no 
interference with the traffic which is essential to the life 
of the commonwealth ; that there should be no stoppage of 
the arteries of circulation in the body politic and social ; 
and that rather than see such a stoppage the Government 
would itself run the trains if necessary until such time as 
the commission could report. When the commission's re- 
port was made, it would have become the duty of the Gov- 
ernment to see that it was put into effect, and in case of 
any controversy itself to interpret and apply the rules. 
That was the course demanded by courage and honor; and 
that was the course demanded by every man to whom 
Americanism was a fact, and not an empty phrase. 

If the improper course which the President followed 
had been due to mistaken conviction, to erroneous principle, 
its effect would nevertheless have been evil. As it is, the 
effect is far worse, because there is grave reason to believe 
that the course he followed was directly opposed to his real 



56 Americanism and Preparedness 

convictions. The President is now a candidate for office 
and speaks well of labor. Until he became a candidate 
for office, and as long as he was President of a University, 
he, with entire safety, ignored or assailed the Labor 
Unions. Indeed, he was then their bitter, ungenerous, and 
often unjust critic. At the People's Forum on February 
25, 1905, he said: "Labor Unions drag the highest man to 
the level of the lowest." In an address at a dinner in the 
Waldorf-Astoria on March 18, 1907, in speaking of the 
capitalists, he said: "There is another equally formidable 
enemy to equality and betterment of opportunity, and that 
is the class formed by the labor organizations and leaders 
of this country." In a letter written January 12, 1909, he 
said: "I am a fierce partisan of the open shop." In June 
of the same year, speaking at Princeton, he said: "The 
usual standard of the employee in our day is to give as 
little as he may for his wages. Labor is standardized by 
the trades unions and this is the standard to which it is 
made to conform. I need not point out how economically 
disastrous such a regulation of labor is. The labor of 
America is rapidly becoming unprofitable under this regu- 
lation. Our economic supremacy may be lost because the 
country grows more and more full of unprofitable serv- 
ants." I have no question that when Mr. Wilson thus 
spoke he expressed his sincere convictions. Less than two 
years later he was in public life and immediately his atti- 
tude changed. There is no reason to believe that his con- 
victions changed. 

Political Expediency First 

The course actually followed by the President and the 
majority of Congress put the interests of the country sec- 
ond to considerations of unhealthy political expediency. It 
appealed to timid and shortsighted men outside of Con- 
gress no less than to those within Congress. It is upheld 
now by certain men who say, "Thank God, President Wilson 
averted a strike," just exactly as they and those like them 
say, "Thank God, President Wilson has kept us out of 
war." These persons do not ask whether he averted the 
strike honorably or dishonorably, any more than they ask 



Words and Deeds 57 

whether he averted a war honorably or dishonorably. 
They have not considered in either case whether temporary 
safety was to be ignobly purchased at the cost of future 
disaster. All that they have demanded was that war should 
be averted in one case, and a strike averted in the other 
case, in order that thej^ might not have to undergo risk or 
temporary material discomfort. They have been too timid 
and too shortsighted to make any sacrifice for the sake of 
right and justice, or to undergo any risk in order to pre- 
serve the foundations of Democracy and of Free Govern- 
ment in America. These men have shown entire willing- 
ness to submit to organized tyranny both from outside our 
borders and from inside our borders, if only at the mo- 
ment they could avoid inconvenience and financial loss. 
These men are not the heirs of the Americans who brought 
the Revolutionary War to a successful close nor of the men 
who wore the Blue and the Gray for four long years in the 
great struggle of the Civil War. If the American people 
of today are willing to accept such leadership, they will 
give justification for the belief that they prize ease and 
comfort above the principles for which their forefathers 
suffered and died. 

An Invitation to Disaster 

We of the United States invite disaster, we sacrifice 
every principle of manhood, if we raise a breed of men in 
this country who determine vital issues in such fashion. 
Such men when they face any issue merely ask if it is 
difficult to meet it honestly and bravely; and if it is, they 
instantly proceed to meet it dishonestly and timidly. They 
measure the acts of their public men in terms of imme- 
diate material content and ease. They do not require 
them to act in terms of right and justice. They say that 
they stand for the administration because it has kept us 
out of war, and has averted a strike. They refuse seriously 
to consider, as all high-minded Americans ought to con- 
sider, the President's refusal to do his plain and honest 
duty by meeting great crises honorably and courageously. 

If our people follow the President who has kept them 
in the easy path of temporary comfort and material ease 



58 Americayiism and Pre'paredness 

at the sacrifice of national honor and of true Americanism, 
and of the immutable principles of righteousness, then as 
a people we shall lose all moral greatness in the present, 
and most assuredly we shall see this loss followed by the 
loss of material greatness in the future. 

Promise and Performance 

An ounce of performance outweighs a ton of promise. 
In all these cases whenever there was any risk, any danger 
to be encountered. President Wilson has promptly retreated. 
He has then sought to cover his retreat by uttering high- 
sounding words. But in these cases his high-sounding 
words amount to absolutely nothing. Only his acts, or 
failures to act, count. In the anthracite strike we settled 
the principle that the public rights are superior to any 
private rights in matters of vital public moment. Presi- 
dent Wilson surrendered this principle at the demand of 
the great labor leaders, without investigation and regard- 
less of the facts, and shifted the burden to the public, while 
abandoning the rights of the public. For justice in dealing 
between capital and labor he has substituted the policy of 
craven surrender to whichever side has the superiority in 
brute force. Once more in our internal aff'airs, as in our ex- 
ternal affairs, he has stood for peace at any price. He 
refuses to look ahead. He shows not -one shred of that 
stern and unyielding courage which enables a leader to 
face temporary risk, discomfort and hardship for the sake 
of a lofty ideal and a splendid ultimate triumph. He was 
cowed by the big labor leaders exactly as he had already 
been cowed by Germany and by Mexico. He himself 
acknowledged the evil of the situation when he said, *'It 
must never be allowed again." But by his actions he has 
guaranteed that it will arise again, whenever there is in the 
White House a man too timid to face threats or front 
danger. Mr. Wilson's acts in the White House have shown 
that what he seeks in any emergency of this nature is mo- 
mentary relief, temporary safety, purchased at whatever 
cost of present ignominy and at whatever risk of future 
disaster. President Wilson has announced that in theory 
he stood for arbitration in such matters, but the minute 



Words and Deeds 59 

that he was threatened he not only abandoned the principle 
but supported the assault on it. The union leaders an- 
nounced that they had "steadily refused to arbitrate," and 
that in their action they were "supported by the President 
of the United States." President Wilson was the guardian 
of the public weal. He betrayed the public weal. This is 
specifically set forth in the official announcement of the 
chairman of the union representatives, who thus described 
the contest : 

"In times like this men go back to primal instinct — 
to the day of the caveman, who, with his half-gnawed 
bone snarled at the other caveman who wanted to take his 
bone away. We leaders are fighting for our men, the rail- 
roads are fighting for their stockholders, and the shippers 
for themselves. And the public will pay." And President 
Wilson let the public pay. He let the contest be decided 
not on principles of justice, but by the rules obtained be- 
tween cavemen snarling over a bone. No wonder that the 
rugged cavemen of industrial warfare treated with utter 
contempt the feeble appeals of the apostle of peace at any 
price. 

Lasting Harm Done to Nation 

By his actions President Wilson did lasting harm 
to the nation. The vice of his procedure was four-fold. He 
delivered a deadly blow at the principle of industrial arbi- 
tration. He immensely weakened the power of the National 
Executive to act under such conditions on behalf of the 
public. He established the shameful and perilous prece- 
dent that the Government of the United States can be co- 
erced, and legislation extorted from Congress, by terror- 
ization and the threat of violence. He aided in securing a 
settlement which puts a premium on the overriding of 
justice by appeals to brute force. 

"The Sanction of Society" 

President Wilson seeks to justify himself on the 
ground that it was "futile" and dangerous to "stand firm- 
ly." This is an appeal that can with equal truth be made 
by every soldier who runs away in battle. He further al- 



60 Americanism and Preparedness 

leges his belief that the cause he championed "has the sanc- 
tion of the judgment of society in its favor," I remember 
thirty-odd years ago in the Black Hills a local vigilance 
committee which was in doubt about hanging a suspected 
wrongdoer. While they were discussing the matter, there 
appeared over the neighboring divide a frowsy, elderly 
horseman in a linen duster, who promptly galloped towards 
them, waving his arms and shouting "Hang him ! Hang 
him!" The leader of the vigilantes at once asked the 
frowsy stranger what he knew of the facts, whereupon the 
stranger answered : "I do not know anything about the 
facts, and I never saw the man before; but there's eleven 
of you and only one of him, and I believe in majority rule!" 
This is merely a picturesque paraphrase of what Mr. Wil- 
son calls action under "the sanction of society." It ex- 
emplifies the principles upon which President Wilson has 
acted in those public matters, internal and external, where 
he was threatened with the use of force. 

Elect Hughes 

I appeal to my fellow citizens that they shall elect 
Mr. Hughes and repudiate Mr. Wilson because only by so 
doing can they save America from that taint of gross sel- 
fishness and cowardice which we owe to Mr. Wilson's 
substitution of adroit elocution for straightforward action. 
The permanent interests of the American people lie, not 
in ease and comfort for the moment, no matter how ob- 
tained, as Mr. Wilson would teach us, but in resolute 
championship of the ideals of national and international 
democratic duty, and in preparedness to make this cham- 
pionship effective by our strength. President Wilson em- 
bodies in his person that most dangerous doctrine which 
teaches our people that when fronted with really formidable 
responsibilities we can shirk trouble and labor and risk, 
and avoid duty by the simple process of drugging our 
souls with the narcotic of meaningless phrasemongering. 
Mr. Hughes, to the exact contrary, embodies the ideal of 
service rendered through conscientious effort in the face 
of danger and difficulty. Mr. Wilson turns his words into 
deeds only if this can be achieved by adroit political 



Words and Deeds 61 

maneuvering, by bartering a debauched civil service for 
congressional votes on behalf of some measure which he 
had solemnly promised to oppose. Our own self-respect 
demands that we support the man of deeds done in the 
open against the man of furtive and shifting political 
maneuvers ; the man of service against the man who, when- 
ever opposed by a dangerous foe, always takes refuge in 
empty elocution. 

There is nothing that we of this country so much need 
as to practice the doctrine of service. As a people we 
need the sterner virtues even more than we need the softer 
virtues. Material prosperity, bodily ease, money, pleasure, 
are all desirable ; but woe to us if we consider them as 
the be-all and end-all of our private lives or of our col- 
lective national life ! Woe to us if our material prosperity 
brings in its wake lethargy of spirit and deadness of soul! 
Let us in our lives apply the great doctrines of duty and 
of service. Above all let us realize that lofty profession is 
a mischievous sham when it is not translated into efficient 
performance. Among the companions of Lucifer in Mil- 
ton's mighty epic there was none among the fiercer fiends 
so dangerous as he who 

"With words clothed in reason's garb. 
Counselled ignoble ease and peaceful sloth. 
Not peace." 



THE SQUARE DEAL IN INDUSTRY 
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, October 14, 1916 



I HAVE accepted the invitation to come to Wilkes-Barre, 
to discuss the Adamson law, because Wilkes-Barre is the 
headquarters of the great industry in connection with which 
I myself as President was brought into close and intimate 
touch with the labor movement in this country. If what I 
have to say is of any value it must be not only because it 
represents what in the abstract is right, but also because 
in the concrete I applied, in actual practice, when I had 
power, the principles which I criticize Mr. Wilson for not 
applying now. Therefore, I wish to recapitulate to you just 
what occurred in connection with the anthracite coal strike 
and to contrast it with what Mr. Wilson has done in con- 
nection with the law for the increase of wages on railroads. 

United States First 

At the outset, I wish to express my very hearty admi- 
ration for the Brotherhoods. I am proud of the fact that I 
am an honorary member of one of them. I have usually 
been in entire sympathy with them. While I held public 
office I found myself, in the vast majority of cases, able to 
support them in their demands, because these demands were 
right. But now they have demanded legislation raising 
their wages to be taken without investigation and without 
the exercise of that form of judgment shown by a compe- 
tent arbitration commission; and such a demand is wrong, 
and I stand against it because it is wrong, exactly as I have 
stood against the demands of bankers and lawyers, and 
mine owners and railroad presidents when they were wrong. 
I believe in labor unions. I am proud that I am myself an 
honorary member of a labor union. But I believe first of all 
in the Union to which all of us belong, the union of all the 
people of the whole United States. 

62 



The Square Deal in Industry 63 

President's Action Wrong by His Own Statement 

In the case of the settlement of the anthracite coal 
strike, the action I took was of precisely the kind which 
President Wilson now says the law should make obligatory 
in all similar cases in the future. But Mr. Wilson himself 
admits that his own action was so bad that it ought never 
to be repeated, for he has assured the public that although 
Congress has adjourned without doing anything, it is his 
intention when Congress meets to see that it does some- 
thing to render it impossible for another President ever to 
repeat exactlj^ what he has just done. In other words, I 
stood and stand by my action as the proper action, constitut- 
ing the proper precedent for future action. Mr. Wilson 
himself confesses that his action was wrong and that the 
precedent thereby set is so evil that legislation must be en- 
acted rendering it impossible for another President ever to 
repeat the action. 

There is another point of difference, and a vital point. 
The action I took was intended to meet the situation at 
once. The action that Mr. Wilson took has been deferred 
so that it shall not take place until considerably after elec- 
tion. 

The Anthracite Coal Strike 

Fourteen years ago the great anthracite coal strike 
had occurred in this region. From the beginning I put the 
governmental agents in touch with the situation and kept 
myself thoroughly informed, so that I should be able to act 
immediately if it became necessary for me to act. I hoped 
that it would not be necessary, and that the parties them- 
selves would come to an agreement ; for I was very loath to 
interfere if it could be avoided. But cold weather approached, 
a coal famine menaced the entire eastern section of the 
United States, and there was not the slightest symptom of 
an agreement being reached by the contending parties. I 
felt that the time had come for me to act. On the one side 
were the greatest and wealthiest mine-owners of the coun- 
try, intimately connected with the wealthiest and most 
powerful industrial and railroad corporations in the coun- 
try. These men absolutely refused to arbitrate. They said 



64 Americanism and Preparedness 

there was nothing to arbitrate, that I had no power under 
the Constitution to act, and that the public could not inter- 
fere, nor the representatives of the public, with the way in 
which they managed their business. The representatives 
of the mine workers, of labor, on the contrary, expressed 
their entire willingness to arbitrate and demanded nothing 
except that as one of the conditions of arbitration there 
should be some representative of organized labor to sit 
together with the representatives of capital and of the pub- 
lic at large. I made every effort to get the two sides to 
agree. When I failed, I decided that I would act myself. 
I held that where the public necessity was national and im- 
perative it became the duty of the Chief of the Nation to 
act. I held that in any such gigantic controversy between 
labor and capital, containing such a threat to the welfare 
of the great body of our people, there were three parties in 
interest: viz., the capitalists, the workingmen, and the peo- 
ple as a whole ; and that where the public need was vital that 
need must control. 

Arbitration Insisted Upon 

I held, moreover, that in any case of such importance 
and such interest we must have full knowledge before final 
action on any of the points at issue was taken, and that this 
•knowledge must be obtained by an unbiased body of arbitra- 
tors after a thorough study of the situation. I held that the 
power of the Government must be used to make effective 
the findings of this body, and that pending the findings the 
work of mining must go on because the public need de- 
manded it. Therefore, I decided that I would use the entire 
power of the nation to see that there was an arbitration by 
dispassionate experts, and that the conclusions of that arbi- 
tration were accepted by both sides, and that until their 
decision was rendered the work of mining should go on in 
the interests of the people as a whole. When the mine 
owners, backed by and representing the most powerful finan- 
cial interests of the country, positively refused to arbitrate, 
I proceeded to appoint an Arbitration Committee without 
regard to them ; securing the consent of a political opponent, 
ex-President Grover Cleveland, to serve at the head of that 



The Square Deal in Industry 65 

commission. I saw the Lieutenant-General of the Army 
and arranged with him that if necessary I would put the 
army in possession of the mines and would treat him as a 
receiver to run the mines, and to see that neither side inter- 
fered with the mining. When it became evident that I 
meant what I said, that both sides could count on my en- 
deavor to do strict justice, and that they could also count 
on my insisting that the public needs be immediately met, 
the capitalists yielded and the Commission was appointed. 

You know the rest, you miners here! Work was re- 
sumed in the mines immediately, on the old terms, which 
continued until the Commission reported. The Commission 
consisted of as able and as impartial men as there were in 
the country, including the head of the Order of Railway 
Conductors, Mr. Clark. It also included among others, a 
Federal Judge, a skilled engineer, a trained labor expert and 
a beloved friend of mine, Archbishop Spaulding, of Illinois, 
whose interest in the welfare of the workingmen was gen- 
uine and sympathetic, and who also understood with entire 
clearness that in the long run justice to the workingmen 
could be permanently secured only if it was made part of 
a scheme to secure justice for everybody concerned. 

Arbitration Successful 

• 

The arbitration was successful. I understand that with 

slight modifications, you have continued to operate the 
mines under its terms up to the present day. More im- 
portant still, it set the precedent for the course that ought 
to be followed in all disputes of this nature hereafter. Mr. 
Wilson, on the contrary, has set a precedent which he him- 
self admits must never hereafter be followed if justice is 
to be done. This is a vital point of difference between the 
conduct of the Chief Executive in one case and in the other. 
When fourteen years ago, I acted, there was no precedent 
for me to follow, and no established instrumentalities 
through which to work. I had to establish the precedent in 
order to meet a great crisis. I had to create my own instru- 
ment, the Arbitration Commission. Mr. Wilson had before 
him the precedent I had created, and he had as instruments 
ready to hand the Arbitration Board, and the Interstate 



66 Americanism and Preparedness 

Commerce Commission, with its enlarged powers. But he 
failed to follow the precedent, or to use the instruments 
which were ready to his hand. I, although lacking the 
agencies of law for the application of the principle, never- 
theless applied it, and established arbitration in the settle- 
ment on their merits of industrial disputes. Mr. Wilson, 
with all the agencies of law subject to his command, ignored 
them, destroyed the principle of arbitration in the settle- 
ment of industrial disputes, and put a premium on securing 
this settlement by threat and duress. 

The President Condemns Himself 

President Wilson in his speeches of August 29th and 
September 23d has furnished his own condemnation out 
of his own mouth. In them he explicitly condemns exactly 
what he has done and actually demands legislation which 
will make impossible the repetition of such a proceeding! 
This is so extraordinary an attitude that I quote his own 
words. He said he wished "to provide" against "the recur- 
rence of such unhappy situations in the future" by securing 
"the calm and fair arbitration of all industrial disputes in 
the days to come." This is an explicit assertion that arbi- 
tration of all industrial disputes is the right method of ac- 
tipn; and therefore that he had adopted the wrong method 
of action — although in the case of the anthracite coal strike 
he had an exact precedent in point, by following which he 
would have enforced the right method. 

President Wilson further says, "This is assuredly the 
best way of vindicating a principle, namely, having failed to 
make certain of its observance in the present to make cer- 
tain of its observance in the future." On the contrary, 
this is the very worst way of vindicating a principle. In- 
deed, it is impossible to devise a worse way of vindicating 
a principle, than to flinch ignominiously from enforcing it in 
the case at issue and at the same time to seek to cover the 
ignominy by vociferous protestations about applying it in 
the nebulous future. The same paper, the New York Times, 
from which I quote the above sentences, contained state- 
ments from the leaders of the Brotherhoods whom he was 
befriending, in which they said that they would never con- 



The Square Deal in Industry 67 

sent to the legislation providing for future arbitration for 
which President Wilson asked; and President Wilson kept 
a weak and nervous silence about this defiance. He did not 
get the legislation which he declared was essential to "vin- 
dicate the principle" in the future. All that he accomplished 
was the violation of the principle in the present, in the con- 
crete case at issue. The only law he secured established the 
precedent of violation of the principle. All that he did was 
to establish the most evil of all precedents for a democracy, 
the precedent of violating a principle under the duress of 
threat and menace. It is a precedent which will return to 
plague us throughout all future time whenever we have in 
the White House a President who is timid in the face of 
threat of physical violence or who subordinates duty to the 
hope of personal political profit. 

President Wilson further said, while trying to gloss 
over his timidity in the present by assuming an attitude of 
frowning defiance as regards the nebulous future, that the 
American people must hereafter be made "a partner in the 
settlement of disputes that interrupt the life of the nation," 
that it must "enforce the partnership and see to it that no 
organization is stronger than that organization to which we 
all belong, our own Government," and that we the people 
must say to any outside organization that it "must not inter- 
rupt the National life without consulting us." These arie fine 
words about the future. They are intended to cover up, 
but as a matter of fact, they furnish the strongest condem- 
nation of, Mr. Wilson's deed in the present. In these words 
Mr. Wilson exactly describes what he ought to have done 
with the Brotherhoods, and explicitly condemns the action 
which he in fact took. H the principles he laid down were 
good for the future, they were good for the present. Do it 
now, Mr. Wilson! Do not use fine words about what some- 
body else ought to do in the future in order to cover your 
own shameful abandonment of duty in the present. 

Wages, Not Hours, at Issue 

Mr. Wilson has adroitly maintained that the question 
at issue was the eight-hour day. This is not the fact. The 
question at issue was the question of wages. The law does 



68 Americmnsm and Preparedness 

not say that there shall be an eight-hour day. It says that 
eight hours shall "be made the measure of a day's work for 
.the purpose of receiving compensation." In other words, 
it was primarily an increase of wages and not a diminution 
of hours that was aimed at. 

Eight-Hour Day the Ideal 

I believe in the eight-hour day. It is the ideal toward 
which we should tend. But I believe that there must be 
common sense as well as common honesty in achieving the 
ideal. Mr. Wilson has laid down the principle that there 
is something sacred about the eight-hour day which makes- 
it improper even to discuss it. If this is so, if it is applied 
universally, then Mr. Wilson is not to be excused for not 
applying it immediately where he has complete power, and 
that is in his own household. If the principle of the eight- 
hour day is sacred and not to be changed under any cir- 
cumstances, then the housemaid, who in Mr. Wilson's house, 
arises at seven must be let off at three in the afternoon; 
and if Mr. Wilson's butler is kept up after a State dinner 
until ten, he must not come on until two of the following 
afternoon, and no hired man on a farm must get up to milk 
the cows in the morning unless he quits work before milk- 
ing time arrives that same evening. Of course, the simple 
truth is that under one set of conditions an eight-hour day 
may be too long or at least may represent the very maxi- 
mum of proper work ; whereas there may be other conditions 
under which a man working more than eight hours one day 
gets one or two days of complete leisure following, or where 
the work is intermittent throughout the day, or is of so 
easy or varied a type that no exhaustion accompanies it, 
or where a rush of work for a few days will be compensated 
by complete leisure on certain other days. It is ridiculous 
to say that an engineer of a high-speed train under especially 
difficult conditions, an engineer of a low-speed train under 
very much easier conditions, a farm laborer in harvest time, 
a man engaged as a watchman through the quiet work of 
the night, or a man engaged in the exhausting work of a 
steel puddler in a continuous seven-days-a-week, night-and- 



The Square Deal in Industry 69 

day industry, should be governed by precisely the same rule, 
or by the same rigid application in detail of a second, general 
principle. 

Justice Cannot Be Done Without Full Knowledge of the 

Facts 

I heartily believe in a proper limitation by law of hours 
of work in the railroad service, and I recommended legisla- 
tion to that effect when I was President. I believe in the 
wages in any industry being just as high as it is possible to 
make them without injustice to the capital invested and to 
the public which is served. But it is a mere truism to say 
that it is impossible to get this ideal achieved unless an 
honest and dispassionate effort is first made by the proper 
commission to ascertain the full facts in the particular case. 
As regards the railroads, we have to consider the wages paid 
to the different classes of employees, the interest on the 
investment, the earning power of the road, and the kind of 
service that must be rendered to the public. It is impossible 
to secure a proper solution of the problem unless all these 
factors are considered. Mr. Wilson absolutely declined to 
consider any of them. He declined even to ask what they 
were. We have not at this moment one particular of trust- 
worthy information which will enable us to decide whether 
the demands of the men were just or not. I wish it dis- 
tinctly understood that I am not trying to pass judgment 
upon the justice of the case. I regard the engineers, firemen 
and enginemen and trainrhen generally as doing peculiarly 
responsible and arduous work, and entitled to particular con- 
sideration as regards both hours of labor and pay. I hope 
that they are fully entitled as a matter of justice to what 
they will receive under the Adamson bill, and if it so appears 
I shall heartily support it. But I protest against the far- 
reaching evil of the precedent set in the method which has 
been followed. We are denied knowledge. We see Congress 
forced to act under threats. I protest against any law 
passed under such duress. I protest against the case being 
decided without giving each party its day in court, and above 
all without giving the public its day in court. I hope the 
demands of the men were just, and would have been proved 



70 Americanism and Pi'eparedness 

so to be, if investigated before a competent body. But I ex- 
plicitly protest against any action by the Government when 
no investigation has been held to see whether the claims are 
or are not just, and when they are granted through fear and 
not as a matter of right. 

The Public Must Pay 

Remember, it is the public that in the end will pay. You 

do not have to take my assertion for this. Take the asser- 
tion of Mr. Wilson's master in this matter. The Union lead- 
ers, through their Chairman, Mr. Garretson, announced that 
"they would steadily refuse to arbitrate and that in their 
action they were supported by the President of the United 
States." They stated their case in a nutshell as follows: 
"In times like this, men go back to primal instinct — to the 
day of the caveman with this half-gnawed bone, snarling at 
the other caveman who wanted to take his bone away. We 
leaders are fighting for our men. The railroads are fighting 
for their stockholders; and the shippers for themselves. 
And the public will pay." Mr. Garretson is right — the 
public will pay. And it will pay without having had the 
chance to know whether it ought or ought not to pay. Mr. 
Wilson betrayed the public when he refused to insist that 
the contest should be decided on principles of justice, and 
when he permitted it to be decided in deference to greed and 
fear. Mr. Wilson announced that it was "futile" to stand 
firmly against these improper demands. It would not have 
been futile if a Democrat of the stamp of Andrew Jackson 
or Grover Cleveland had been President. The futility in- 
hered solely in Mr. Wilson himself. If President Wilson had 
stood by the honor and the interests of the United States 
in this matter; if he had insisted upon a full investigation 
before action ; if he had insisted upon arbitration and had 
announced that if there was any attempt to tie up the traffic 
of the United States he would use the entire power of the 
United States to keep the arteries of traffic open, I would 
have applauded him and supported him. But, to take such 
action needed courage. It needed disinterestedness. It was 
necessary that the man taking it should put duty to the 
nation first and political and personal considerations last. 



The Square Deal in Industry 71 

What President Wilson did was to permit the overriding 
of justice by appeals to brute force. 

He says that it would have been "futile" to show cour- 
age and stand up for the right. From the standpoint of the 
nation, the worst type of futility in a President is to fail to 
stand up for the right. President Wilson felt it was futile 
to oppose these men, exactly as President Buchanan, his 
spiritual forbear, felt in 1860, that it was futile, to oppose 
secession. That type of futility gives the real measure of 
the man who practises it. What Buchanan considered futile 
Lincoln made heroic. 

Mr. Hughes Incapable of Yielding to Threats 

I champion Mr. Hughes as against Mr. Wilson because 
in every such crisis Mr. Wilson, by his public acts, has 
shown that he will yield to fear, that he will not yield to 
justice; whereas the public acts of Mr. Hughes have proved 
him to be incapable of yielding in such a crisis to any threat, 
whether made by politicians, corporations or labor leaders. 

I have always stood for the rights of labor. You miners 
before me know that. I stood by you, and I incurred the 
hostility of the greatest financial powers of the land by so 
doing, and I have felt, that hostility in public life ever since. 
But I did not care, because I knew that my course was 
bright. I stood by you because I believed you were right. 
If I had been the type of jnan who was willing to stand by 
you when you were wrong, I would never have dared to 
stand by you when you were right, against such opposition 
as at that time I encountered. I have stood for shorter 
^ours of labor. I have stood for a better wage for the 
laborer, for better housing conditions ; for giving the labor- 
ing wageworker better living conditions and better and 
safer working conditions. I have stood to give him and his 
wife and his children the chance to make of themselves all 
that American citizens should make of themselves, I have 
stood, and always shall stand, for everything in the interest 
of justice for the laboring man. But I have always stood 
and always shall stand, against yielding anything through 
fear or because of threats. I believe in the great principle of 
arbitration. I believe in invoking the action of the govern- 



72 Americanism and Preparedness 

ment to help labor; but I also believe that to invoke such 
action will in the end be ruinous to labor, as well as to the 
country, if it is not exercised with wisdom and fearlessness 
and in the spirit of exact justice to all the parties concerned. 
If these questions are not settled right, then some time they 
will have to be unsettled, and infinite trouble is thereby laid 
up for us in the future. The only way we can settle them 
right is by deliberation, after all the facts have been put 
before a disinterested and competent body, and the judg- 
ment of that body obtained thereon. This is the course that 
even now ought to be pursued as regards the Adamson bill. 
Its operation has been deferred until after Congress assem- 
bles. Congress should hold it up until a proper commission 
shall investigate the entire subject; and then the Adamson 
bill should be enacted either unchanged, or with whatever 
changes and additions the report of such dispassionate com- 
mission may show to be desirable and necessary. 

Labor leaders who are shortsighted may at the moment 
get from a man in public office who is not actuated by jus- 
tice, more than from a man who is actuated by justice. But 
the laboring people as a whole cannot afford to accept such 
gains. If unjust legislation is given them for improper rea- 
sons, then unjust legislation against them may be enacted 
for improper reasons. More than any other people in the 
country, the wageworkers should insist on just and fair 
action. There is grave reason to believe that in the course 
President Wilson has followed he did violence to his own 
real convictions. Until he became a candidate for office he 
was a bitter, ungenerous and often unjust critic of labor 
unions. I have before me speeches and letters of his made 
and written in 1905, 1907 and 1909, in which Mr. Wilson 
says among other things that "labor unions drag the highest 
man down to the level of the lowest," and in speaking of the 
capitalistic class, he says that "there is another equally 
formidable enemy and it is that class formed by the labor 
leaders of this country," and again "I am a fierce partisan 
of the open shop," and again "The usual standard of the 
employee in our day is to give as little as he can foir his 
wages. Labor is standardized by trade unions and this is 
the standard to which it is made to conform. I need not 



The Square Deal in Industry 73 

point out how economically disastrous such regulation of 
labor is. Our economic supremacy may be lost because the 
country grows more and more full of unprofitable servants." 
These were the utterances of Mr. Wilson when he was presi- 
dent of a university and had neither fear of nor desire to 
profit by the labor vote. In Mr. Wilson's "History of the 
American People" he explicitly stated that the Chinese 
ought not to be excluded from this country because it is bet- 
ter to have them here than it is to have the immigrants we 
now get from Europe. His words were: "The Chinese are 
more to be desired as workmen than most of the coarse crew 
that come crowding in everywhere at the Eastern ports." 
Now he turns round and says: "Our gates must be kept 
open" to those whom he thus denominated a "coarse crew." 
Since he went into politics he has again and again, inces- 
santly and continuously, reversed himself on what he had 
professed to be his deepest convictions prior to entering 
politics, and in each case the announced change of conviction 
agreed with what at the moment seemed to be his political 
interest. 

If it is alleged that President Wilson has been actuated 
only by principle in connection with the Adamson law, then, 
I ask, why has he failed to apply the same principle to the 
railway postal clerks, where he has full power? Estimating 
six days to the week, these postal clerks, operating between 
New York and Pittsburgh, are required to run 205 miles per 
day (for the present administration has reduced the number 
of crews from six to five), whereas the present trainmen's 
agreement requires only 155 miles per day, which is to be 
reduced still further by the Adamson law. The only pos- 
sible explanation of Mr. Wilson's action in one case and in- 
action in the other is that only 400 men are affected in that 
case where the government has full control of the hours of 
labor, whereas 400,000 men are supposed to be affected by 
the Adamson bill. 

The Triumvirate in Control of Mexican Affairs 

Mr. Gompers has recently established himself as the 
especial champion of Mr. Wilson, and claims joint credit 
with Mr. Wilson for their conduct of our foreign affairs 



74 Americanifim and Preparedness 

so far as Mexico is concerned. He asks labor to support 
Mr. Wilson specifically on the ground of Mr. Wilson's atti- 
tude in Mexico, which, he states, he has helped to secure. 
He says, for example, that he was largely instrumental in 
securing the recognition of Carranza in Mexico, because of 
Carranza's sympathy with the labor movement there. For 
the details of what I speak, I refer you to Senator Fall's re- 
cent speeches, where the exact quotations are given. Mr. 
Gompers states that when all other agencies failed in the 
effort to secure the recognition of Carranza by President Wil- 
son, Gompers intervened on September 22nd, 1915, and Mr. 
Wilson's recognition of Carranza immediately followed. Mr. 
Gompers continues by saying that Carranza was recognized 
as the friend of the working people in Mexico. On Septem- 
ber 2nd, 1916, Mr. Gompers appealed for the support of 
laboring men for Mr. Wilson on the ground of Mr. Wilson's 
policy as regards Mexico. He thus tied himself up with 
Messrs. Wilson and Carranza as one of the triumvirate which 
exercises supreme control in Mexican matters. This makes 
it worth while for the workers to whom Mr. Gompei:s espe- 
cially appeals to study what Carranza, the favored friend 
and ally of Messrs. Gompers and Wilson, has done to labor- 
ing men in Mexico — not to speak of what he has done to 
Americans in Mexico. Mr. Gompers states that when Car- 
ranza refused to surrender the American soldiers taken 
prisoners at Carrizal, in response to President Wilson's re- 
quest, he, Mr. Gompers, telegraphed on June 28th last to 
Carranza appealing to him upon the ground of "patriotism 
and love" for the release of the American soldiers ; and that 
immediately Carranza responded on June 29th to Mr. Gomp- 
ers, saying that he had ordered the release of the prisoners. 
The telegram closed with: "Salute, very affectionately, V. 
Carranza." Thereupon Samuel Gompers, in the name of 
the Federation of Labor, on June 30th, thanked General 
Carranza for releasing the American soldiers. 

No Atonement for Murder of American Soldiers 

I really question whether we have ever in our history 
known anything as extraordinary as the President of the 
United States playing second fiddle in such a manner to the 



The Square Deal in Industry 75 

head of a private organization when dealing with interna- 
tional matters. I wish to call your attention especially to 
two facts in connection with the incident. Neither Mr. Wil- 
son nor Mr. Gompers, neither of the two amateur diplomats 
who thus acted on a footing of fraternal equality in their 
joint conduct — and misconduct — of American foreign rela- 
tions made any appeal or demand for atonement for the 
death of the American soldiers treacherously slain by Car- 
ranza's troops. They did nothing about the killing of Boyd 
and Adair and their troopers. All that they ventured to do 
was to ask that the American soldiers who had been taken 
prisoners when their comrades were slain be returned. That 
was the only request that the joint committee of suppliants 
for safety, composed of President Wilson and President 
Gompers, ventured to demand of their master, Mr. Car- 
ranza. 

Carranza Orders Strikers Shot 

There is a further fact which should be considered by 
the workingmen who are asked to support Carranza by 
Messrs. Wilson and Gompers on the ground that he is the 
friend of labor, I have before me a copy of a decree issued 
by Carranza under date of August 1st, 1916, only ten weeks 
ago. It has been furnished me by Senator Fall. This decree 
was issued because the employees of the electric plant and 
street railroads had struck for higher wages. General Car- 
ranza had ordered that they should accept one peso of paper 
money, that is, ten cents silver, as their daily wage. This 
they refused to do, and struck. Thereupon General Car- 
ranza issued a decree; and remember that General Car- 
ranza's government is a purely military government, where 
neither judges nor legislators have power to interfere in 
any way with what is done by General Carranza and the mili- 
tary authorities who do his bidding. The decree runs in 
part as follows : "The military authorities not long ago ad- 
vised the laboring classes that they would not allow the 
creation of a tyranny so harmful to the welfare of the Mexi- 
can Republic as the tyranny of labor. Notwithstanding this 
the strike of the employees of the electric light company and 
of others allied to it is a palpable demonstration that the 



76 Americanism and Preparedness 

workmen have not wished to be persuaded that they form 
only a small part of society. The suspension of work be- 
comes illegal the moment that the strike not only serves to 
bring pressure on capital, but also harms society in direct 
or indirect manner, as is the case with the present strike. 
The conduct of the labor union in the present case must be 
considered as anti-patriotic and criminal, and constitutes 
without doubt an attack on the public peace. In view of the 
foregoing I have decreed the following as an addition to the 
existing code: Besides the disturbers of the public peace, 
punishable by death as heretofore described, the death pen- 
alty will also be imposed on the following: Those who may 
incite the suspension of work in factories or enterprises des- 
tined to public service, or who preside over meetings in 
which it is proposed to discuss or approve such a strike, 
those who may defend or sustain the same, or who assist in 
these meetings, and those who endeavor to make the strike 
effective upon being declared, and those who by threats or 
force prevent others from rendering their services to the 
companies or enterprises against which the strike is de- 
clared." In short words, this decree is that inasmuch as Mr. 
Carranza disapproves of the strike ordered by a certain 
labor organization, any one who strikes, or who attends a 
strikers' meeting, or who gives assistance or aid to the 
strikers, shall suffer the death penalty — that is, shall be 
tried by drumhead courtmartial and immediately shot. This 
decree was issued on August 1st last. 

Nevertheless Gompers Endorses Carranza 

Yet Mr. Gompers asked the support of the laboring men 
of the United States for Mr. Wilson on the ground that he 
is the sponsor of the military tyrant who issued this decree. 

It is now announced in the press that Mr. Gompers is nego- 
tiating with Mr. Carranza in order to get him to withdraw 
the decree. If so it will only be until after election. But let 
all American citizens think deeply before they retain in 
power an Administration which tolerates such an inter- 
national alliance as that between Messrs. Wilson, Gompers 
and Carranza, and such management of its foreign affairs 



The Square Deal in Industry 11 

as Mr. Gompers is carrying on with the countenance, and in 
the interest, of Mr. Wilson. 

Protective Tariff Indispensable 

The welfare of the laboring man and the welfare of the 
farmer taken together represent the foundation of the na- 
tional welfare. I have always conscientiously endeavored 
to do everything in my power for the wageworker who 
worked with his hands and for the farmer. I will do every- 
thing that in me lies for their permanent good, except any- 
thing that is wrong, and that I will do for no man, I speak 
out of my deepest convictions and as conscientiously as it 
is in my power to speak when I say to you that I believe that 
Mr. Wilson's action in connection with the Adamson bill is 
deeply pre judical to the real and permanent interests of the 
laboring man. I say to you with deepest conviction that if 
you yourself will look back you will find that on the average, 
the wageworker has prospered more when this country has 
been under a protective tariff than when the protective tariff 
has been so low as not to give protection to our immense 
and varied industries ; and above all, to the men working in 
those industries. As you know, I have always stood for the 
tariff only to the degree in which the benefit was reasonably 
shared between the men in the front office and the men who 
receive the pay envelopes. I stand for that division now. 
But there must be something to divide, or nobody will get 
anything. 

The Democratic Deficiency Tax 

I ask you to look back only two short years. Mr. Wil- 
son was inaugurated as President three years ago last 
Spring. He and his party immediately passed a low tarirt 
law. Under it Government receipts fell off so alarminglv 
that there was a great deficit which had to be met by 
a special tax. This was later called a war tax; but it was 
not due to the war at all ; the decrease in receipts was prior 
to the war, it was a deficiency tax, pure and simple. As 
some one pointed out at the time, Canada had a war with 
no tax ; whereas we had a tax with no war. It was purely a 
deficiency tax. 



78 Americanism and Preparedness 

Widespread Misery Due to Democratic Action 

During the first eighteen months of this Administration 
the national business went to pieces, the sidings of the rail- 
roads were jammed with empty cars, and the number of 
unemployed in every great industry grew to appalling di- 
mensions. I speak here of what I personally know ; for less 
than two years ago I had to take an active part in New 
York in measures to relieve the unemployed. I then saw 
municipal lodging houses crowded to overflowing with peo- 
ple desirous of working, who could not get any work, and 
who did not have enough money to pay for the poorest 
lodging or the cheapest meals. The unemployed were num- 
bered not by the thousands, but by the scores of thousands ; 
and I was in active correspondence with men and women 
in other cities, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia, where the 
conditions were just as bad as in New York. Every kind 
of provision had to be made, by private charities and by the 
public authorities, in order to care for the multitude of peo- 
ple who wished to work but who were in dire want because 
there was no work. The misery was widespread. For in- 
stance, the Board of Health of New York had to pass a spe- 
cial resolution allowing the eating of horse meat (I think 
the exact phraseology gave permission to fatten old houses 
for slaughter and food), because every effort had to be 
made to give to those out of work the cheapest food that 
would sustain life. Remember that those times were nor- 
mal. There was then no war. We were at peace. We were 
simply experiencing the normal results of 'legislative action 
under Mr. Wilson and the Democratic Administration. 

Artificial Stimulus Due to War 

The suff'ering was widespread throughout this country. 
Suddenly the war came. At one stroke this country was 
granted a measure of protection greater than any it had ever 
received under any tariff in its history. Moreover, the de- 
mand for munitions of war was stimulated to such an enor- 
mous degree as to completely reverse trade conditions. For 
example, comparing the fiscal years ending June 30, 1914, 
and June 30, 1916, that is,, the year before the war and the 
year that has just elapsed, the losses in ordinary exports 



The Square Deal hi Induatrij 79 

during the last year, compared to the former, were over two 
hundred milHon dollars ; whereas there was a gain in exports 
of war material of nearly two billion dollars. If it were not 
for these artificial conditions, the suffering from unemploy- 
ment in this country at this time would in all probability 
be as great as it was in 1914, and we would have seen two 
or three years of an industrial crisis at least as bad as any 
we have ever known in our history. The present stimulus is 
artificial. It will cease with the war conditions coming to an 
end. It will then be difficult to avoid some suffering any- 
how. If Mr. Wilson is kept in office, this suffering will 
doubtless be prolonged and acute. 

"If You Will Steal For Me, You Will Steal From Me" 

In short, you miners of Pennsylvania, I appeal to you, 
and I appeal to all wageworkers of the United States, both 
in the name of sound American citizenship, and also in the 
name of your real and permanent self-interest. No Amer- 
ican citizen can afford to put the stamp of his approval on 
any law supposed to be passed for the benefit of anybody 
without investigation, under duress of threats or for fear 
of the loss of political power. I ask any men who are 
tempted to approve of the politician, big or little, whom 
they think has helped them by doing wrong in their interest, 
to remember that the man who for his profit does wrong in 
your interest will just as unhesitatingly do wrong against 
your interest, if ever he thinks it to his profit to do so. 

In the old days, thirty years ago, when I lived on a cow 
ranch in the short grass country, the branding iron and the 
cowboy took the place of fences, and our herds were man- 
aged by branding each calf with the brand of the cow it fol- 
lowed. If the calf was not branded the first year, then the 
next year when it was an unbranded yearling, it was called 
a maverick. By range law^ we were supposed to brand each 
maverick with the brand of the ranch on which it was found. 
One day I was riding across a neighbor's ranch with a 
puncher I had just hired, and we came across a maverick. 
We got down our ropes, threw the maverick, and built a lit- 
tle fire of sagebrush to heat one of the cinch rings ; and the 
puncher started to run on the brand. I said, "Put on 



80 Americanism and Preparedness 

the thistle brand" — the brand of the range we were on. He 
answered, "All right, boss, I know my business"; and in 
another minute he had put on my brand, remarking, "I 
always put on the boss's brand." I answered, "Well — go 
back to the ranch and get your time." He jumped up and 
said, "What's that for? I was putting on your brand, wasn't 
I?" I answered, "Yes, my friend, you were putting on my 
brand, and if you will i^teal for me you ivill steal from me!" 
This is a good rule to remember, for laboring men, 
farmers, professional men, business men, for all citizens of 
the United States, in dealing with their public servants. If 
a public servant will do wrong to please any particular class, 
it may be taken as absolutely certain that he will do wrong 
against the interest of that particular class whenever it 
becomes to his own profit to do so. 



NATIONAL RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL 

DUTY 

Louisville, Kentucky, October 18, 1916 



AT the outset of my speech I wish to point out, as I have 
elsewhere pointed out, that the doctrine now often ad- 
vanced as to the impropriety of criticising the President, 
without any regard as to whether the criticism is or is not 
just, has no warrant either in history or on grounds of pub- 
lic morality. Andrew Jackson in a message to the Senate on 
April 15th, 1834, put the case exactly as it should be put. 
He said : 

"The President is accountable at the bar of 
. public opinion for every act of his administra- 
tion. Subject only to the restraints of truth and 
justice, the free people of the United States have 
the undoubted right, as individuals, or collectively, 
orally or in writing, at such times and in such 
language and form as they may think proper, to 
discuss his official conduct and express and pro- 
mulgate their opinions concerning it." 

This lays down the law that should be followed. There 
must be truth and justice in all that is said of the Presi- 
dent, or of any one else ; but less than any one other man in 
the nation has he the right to claim immunity from any 
criticism that is both just and truthful. I criticise President 
Wilson because his deeds have belied his words, and his 
words have belied one another. 

Mr. Wilson's Promises Broken 

Mr. Wilson's promises before election, both those made 
in his own speeches, and those made in the platform, have 
been so well-nigh invariably broken, that the breaking of 
them has become a subject for jest even among his own 

81 



82 Americanism and Preparedness 

friends. One of Mr. Wilson's prominent Democratic sup- 
porters in Congress stated with refreshing frankness the 
exact truth about Mr. Wilson's pre-election promises, and 
those made on his behalf, when in answer to some charge of 
inconsistency, he responded by saying that "Our platform 
was made to get into office on — and we have won." You 
will find this remark on page 4618 of the Congressional 
Record, the Third Session of the 62nd Congress. It is im- 
possible to study Mr. Wilson's pre-election promises and 
post-election performances; it is impossible to compare the 
diametrically opposed attitudes he has assumed at different 
times on almost every public question; it is impossible to 
compare what he says in one set of speeches with what he 
says in another set, without feeling that what this congres- 
sional supporter of his said of his platform applies also to 
his speeches. 

Now, I do not regard such action on the part of Mr. 
Wilson and his followers, and the cynical frankness with 
which they avow it, as a matter for jest. I doubt if it is pos- 
sible more effectively to undermine public morality in this 
country than by accustoming the people to regard promises 
made in politics with cynical amusement as intended only 
for purposes of deception. A high-minded man regards a 
promise made on the stump by a candidate for office, a 
promise intended to secure the support of those to whom 
it is made, as a pledge which it is as imperatively necessary 
to redeem as if it were made in private life to a private in- 
dividual ; and its subsequent repudiation in one case can 
only be justified by conditions substantially like those which 
would justify it in the other case. An honorable man will 
scorn an untruth on the stump juSt as much as off the 
stump. An honorable man will break a promise made pub- 
licly in a political campaign just as reluctantly as he will 
break a promise made to another man in private life. An 
honorable man keeps faith in public life no less than in pri- 
vate life. 

Mr. Wilson's Speeches 

President Wilson's speeches are models of adroit, in- 
direct suggestion and avoidance of downright statement. 
But the other day at Omaha he seems to have committed 



National Rights and International Duty 83 

himself to the statement that he was "willing to fight," but 
was "waiting for something worth fighting for," for some- 
thing which would "put all the corpuscles of his blood into 
shouting shape." It would be interesting to know exactly 
what outrage on American citizens, or on the rights of hu- 
manity anywhere, which would make him cross the line be- 
tween being "willing to fight" and "too proud to fight." He 
certainly did not regard the treacherous murder of Boyd and 
Adair, and this United States, as "something worth fighting 
for." He did not even write a note about it. The murder 
of 1394 men, women and children on the Lusitania did not 
"put all the corpuscles of his blood into shouting shape." 
His. corpuscles did not shout ; they did not even whisper ; 
apparently all they did was to suggest to him that it was a 
happy occasion for his classic remark about being "too proud 
to fight." I am tempted to think that Mr. Wilson did himself 
an injustice when he said that he was "willing to fight" 
either for any great cause or on account of any wrong here- 
after done to this country ; and that the truth was expressed 
the other day by his eager eulogist, Secretary Baker, when 
he said that he was "glad" that "no one could insult Mr. 
Wilson and make him go to war." Unquestionably General 
Carranza, and probably Herr von Tirpitz, heartily agree 
with Secretary Baker — and deep in his own heart I am 
inclined to believe that Mr. Wilson himself also agrees with 
him. 

Preaching Degrading Doctrine 

Two of Mr. Wilson's most distinguished champions, one 
official and one non-official, take the same view. Secretary 
Lane stated that the fact that "American citizens have been 
killed by outlaws and bandits" was a proper subject for 
"much regret" but not for "sacrificing the blood of our 
sons." Does he think that a woeful allusion of "regret" 
is the way to move bandits? Dr. Charles W. Eliot, former 
President of Harvard, praises Mr. Wilson for having made 
a "great contribution to the peace of the world and to the 
promotion of humane and just dealings between nations," 
by having "gone far to establish as the American policy 
the policy of non-intervention by force of arms for the 
protection of miners, commercial adventurers, investors and 



84 Americanism mid Preparedness 

workmen in foreign parts," and by having refused to adopt 
the "malign suggestion" to protect the lives of these men "by- 
punitive expeditions and compelled agreements." Reduced 
to concrete terms, this statement of Dr. Eliot is that Presi- 
dent Wilson is greatly to be praised because he took no ac- 
tion when some nineteen fine, unoffending, hard-working and 
totally unarmed American miners, and engineers, were 
taken from a railroad train, tortured and murdered by an 
armed Mexican force. Dr. Eliot has been a severe censor 
of political morals, strong in his condemnation of bosses, 
crooked politicians, and demagogic labor leaders; but no 
corrupt boss, no crooked politician or labor leader, no con- 
scienceless capitalist, has ever preached or practised a more 
degrading doctrine, a doctrine more ruinous to the soul and 
the manhood of this nation, or more destructive to human- 
ity and justice in the world at large, than the doctrine 
.thus set forth by this former College President. There 
can be no more severe condemnation of Mr. Wilson than 
to say that he is not unworthy of such praise. American 
women are raped and American children murdered in Mex- 
ico; American men are tortured to death; hundreds of our 
people are slain ; continual forays are made into our own 
territory; Mexico itself is utterly devastated and its people 
slaughtered by the hundred thousand; and Dr. Eliot de- 
nounces as a "malign suggestion" any proposal to put a 
stop to these horrors in the only way by which it is pos- 
sible to stop them. It would be unfair to China to compare 
Dr. Eliot with even an old-school Chinese statesman. If 
he really represents the American people, then let us by all 
means abandon the Monroe Doctrine, and preparedness, and 
patriotism and every form of manliness, national and indi- 
vidual; let us leave Mexico to be set straight by Germany 
or England -or Japan ; and let us sit in helpless folly at 
home until some virile nation makes us what we would 
under such conditions deserve to be made — the hewers of 
wood and drawers of water for alien conquerors. But 
if we Americans are fit sons of our sires, if we are worthy 
of our forefathers of the days of Washington, if we are 
entitled to claim kinship with the valiant souls who wore 
the blue in the armies of Grant or the gray in the armies 



National Rights and International Duty 85 

of Lee, let us treat such counsel with the derision it deserves, 
and view with deep suspicion the President who has earned 
such support. 

Not Too Proud to Fight Small Nations 

There was probably no American outside his own im- 
mediate following more anxious to see Mr. Wilson succeed, 
and more disappointed when he failed, than I was. I criticize 
him only because my duty as an American citizen, proud 
of his country and jealous of her honor, forces me to stand 
against him. Apparently the chief claim advanced for 
Mr. Wilson now is that he has "kept us out of war." Mr. 
Wilson himself said in effect the other day that if he was 
not elected we would have war. Yet Mr. Wilson, through 
the Democratic platform, announces that "the Mexicans 
have made war upon us, and have murdered our citizens." 
Apparently Mr. Wilson does not mind the Mexicans being 
at war with us, as long as we are not at war with the 
Mexicans. Mr. Wilson's conception of war painfully re- 
sembles that described by Mr. Stephen Leacock in his anec- 
dote of how Mr. Smith took Mr, Tompkins by the coat col- 
lar from behind and began kicking him vigorously, "and 
the fight continued in this manner for several minutes." 
The war out of which Mr. Wilson has not kept us with 
Mexico has been waged in precisely this manner; and Mr. 
Wilson's attitude has been precisely as dignified as that of 
the mishandled hero of Leacock's anecdote. And the great 
military nations of the old world have treated Mr. Wilson, 
and through Mr. Wilson have treated Uncle Sam, in similar 
fashion. However, in one case Mr. Wilson asserted him- 
self. Hayti had not behaved towards us one hundredth part 
as badly as Mexico, nor one-tenth as badly as Germany; 
but Hayti had neither army nor navy, Hayti did not even 
have arms and ammunition, and therefore President Wil- 
son was not too proud to fight Hayti. He has taught the 
world that no nation which is small enough to be helpless 
can insult us with impunity. Are you proud of the record, 
you Americans of Kentucky, you whose fathers were once 
not too proud to fight? Mr. Wilson has "kept us out of 
war" forsooth! Why, on our eastern coast war now grins 



86 . Americanism and Preparedness 

at us from just outside the three-mile limit, and on our 
southern border war has been waged on us within our own 
territory again and again by bands of armed invaders dur- 
ing the last three years. 

In his great book on international law, Vattel defines 
war as "the effort to assert rights by violence," The 
Mexicans, during Mr. Wilson's term, have killed more 
Americans than the Spaniards killed in the Spanish War. 
We have now gathered on the Mexican border, and have 
kept there for three months, a far larger army than the com- 
bined armies that took Cuba and the Philippines from the 
Spaniards — and I throw in all the men on the American 
squadrons. There are down on the Mexican border at pres- 
ent more than ten times as many men as were in Mexico 
under Scott and Taylor combined in our war with Mexico. 
We have had all the bloodshed and expense of war, but 
we have not secured what follows a wise, righteous and 
manful war — peace. 

The exact value of the Mexican ''good will" which 
President Wilson has obtained by his policy of tame sub- 
mission to the murder and outrage of our citizens can be 
gathered from the following statement in one of his chief 
newspaper organs, the New York World, of Oct. 10th : 

"CARRANZA ENVOYS IN FIRMER ATTITUDE 



"U-Boat Exploits Give Them Hope That We Shall Have 
More Complications. 

(From a Staff Correspondent of the World) 

"Atlantic City, N. J., Oct. 9. — The activities of Ger- 
man submarines off the American coast and the possibility 
that another crisis may arise between the United States 
and Germany had an appreciable effect upon the Mexican 
conference here today. 

"The Carranza delegates were elated at the prospect 
of this country being involved in further international en- 
tanglements, and their attitude stiffened considerably." 

This statement is well worth serious consideration. 
It comes from one of President Wilson's close organs. It 



National Rights and International Duty 87 

shows that the Carranza Government, which owes its very 
existence to President Wilson, eagerly awaits the opportu- 
nity to join with any hostile old-world power against us. 
This is the fine flower of President Wilson's policy in Mex- 
ico. He has permitted the country to be ruined and its 
people decimated. He has permitted our own people to be 
murdered unchecked. He has prostituted our national honor 
to the bandits whose cause he has espoused. And he has 
won from these bandits only a venomous and treacherous 
hostility to the United States. 

Our Citizens Abandoned 

For three years there has been no protection of our 
citizens abroad. The rights of a citizen of the United States 
to demand the protection of his Government when wronged 
by a foreign power have been settled by the Supreme Court 
of the United States, when it said (83 U. S., p. 79) : "It is the 
privilege of a citizen of the United States to demand the 
care and protection of the Federal Government over his 
life, liberty and property when on the high seas or within 
the jurisdiction of a foreign government." This applied 
to our citizens on the Lusitania and the Arabic who lost 
their lives from German submarines. It applied to our 
citizens in Mexico and Chihuahua, who lost their lives at 
the hands of the Mexican soldiers of Carranza. It applied 
to the Americans whose property was taken in violation of 
the principles of international law by the English fleet. 
The right to life comes ahead of the right of property, and 
unless we first deal with the offenses against the lives of 
our citizens, we have no justification for dealing with of- 
fenses against the property rights of our citizens. But if 
we had done our duty in the first case, it would then have 
become incumbent upon us to do our duty in the latter case. 
At this moment our first duty should be to see that Ameri- 
can citizens, especially women and children, shall not be 
set afloat in rowboats miles off our coast on the October 
seas, as a result of submarine attacks on merchant vessels. 
The German U-boats in effect established a "pacific" block- 
ade of our coast. The "guarantee" of the safety of non-- 
combatants aboard the vessels recently torpedoed off our 



88 Americanism and Preparedness 

coast was carried out by American destroyers, not by the 
German submarines; if the Germans had themselves made 
good, and intended to make good, their guarantee, there 
would have been no necessity for American destroyers to 
be present. 

The Course of Dishonor Followed 

At the outset of this war Mr. Wilson had one of two 
courses to follow. He could by deeds stand up for our 
own rights against everyone, and champion the rights of 
the weak against the strong in all cases ; or else he could sub- 
mit to our being wronged by everyone, and acquiesce tamely 
when wrongs were committed by the strong against the 
weak, even although we had covenanted that such wrongs 
should not be committed. The first was the course of honor, 
of temporary risk and of permanent safety. He did not 
follow it. The second was the course of dishonor, of tem- 
porary safety and of permanent danger. He followed it. 
As to the course we ought to have followed, it is to be 
found laid down in his own utterances, and in the platform 
of his own party. He has himself specifically stated, and 
in the party platform the statement was reiterated, that 
"We hold that it is the duty of the United States to use 
its power ... in the interests of humanity to assist 
the world in securing justice. We believe that the small 
states of 'the world have the right to enjoy from other 
nations the same respect for their sovereignty and terri- 
torial integrity that the great powers insist upon. We 
again declare fully the policy that the sacred rights of 
American citizenship must be preserved at home and 
abroad." I ask all decent men, all right-thinking men of 
straightforward minds, whether there ever has been ranker 
hypocrisy than the use of such expression by the man, and 
the men, who, when the conditions they thus set forth were 
met to a dot, to a line, in the case of the killing of our 
men, women and children on the high seas and in Mexico, 
and in the case of the invasion of Belgium by Germany, 
instantly forgot their duty to America, to humanity and 
justice, and took no action to back up their high-sounding 
words? President Wilson has seen the lives of some five 



National Rights ayid International Duty 89 

hundred Americans taken, afloat and ashore; but never in 
one case has he made good the promise of his platform. 
As soon as Belgium was invaded Mr. Wilson instantly for- 
got his "concern" for the "rights and sovereignty of small 
states," and announced that we must be neutral not only in 
deed, but in thought, between right and wrong, and that 
we had no concern with the European war, and that the 
combatants (including the Belgians, who were fighting for 
their wives, children and hearthstones) were all merely 
"madmen." Out of their own mouths President Wilson 
and his party supporters stand condemned for their action 
and their inaction. 

Our Rights Abandoned 

This case of Belgium was the first of Mr. Wilson's in- 
ternational sins. It combined lofty promise and complete 
failure in performance. It consisted of words which were 
nullified by deeds. In these respects he made it the pre- 
cedent w^hich he followed ever afterwards. He followed it 
when he wrote his "strict accountability" note to Germany 
and then for a year held Germany to no accountability, 
either strict or loose, while it sunk ship after ship with 
thousands of non-combatants, including hundreds of Ameri- 
cans ; and no atonement has been made for the lives thus 
lost to this day. When he dealt with our property rights, 
he announced to England that the United States intended 
fearlessly to accept the "championship" of neutral rights. 
But, as in the case of his note to Germany, he did nothing 
to back up his words. They were words and nothing else. 
He said he would hold Mexico to a "strict responsibility," 
and he did not hold her to any responsibility. He said he 
would hold Germany to "strict accountability," and he did 
not hold her to any accountability. He said that the Eng- 
lish blockade was illegal, ineffective, and indefensible; 
and he neither made his words good nor acted on them. 
He announced that he would insist on all our rights; and 
then he abandoned them all. He wrote strong notes, to 
both sides ; and he took no action to back up the notes to 
either side. We accomplished nothing with either side. 
We incurred resentment from both sides. In just one 



90 Americanism and Prej)aredness 

respect we have succeeded. We have induced the belliger- 
ents to agree on one point. They agree in their utter con- 
tempt for America, in their conviction that the American 
people cannot be goaded into virile action to defend the lives 
of their men, women and children, and in their certainty 
that we are actuated only by the desire to profit by the 
agonies of our European brothers. 

No Real Leadership in Washington 

Instead of speaking softly and carrying a big stick, 
President Wilson spoke bombastically and carried a dish- 
rag. For these offenses against us I blame the Germans, 
for nothing can excuse their jeopardizing and taking the 
lives of men, women and children ; and I do not believe that 
under like circumstances we would have done what they 
have done. For their less heinous offenses against our 
pi:operty rights I blame the British, but I blame them much 
less, and I do believe that under like circumstances we 
would have acted in the same way, if other nations would 
have let us. But I blame the United States even more than 
I blame Germany, and far more than I blame England, for 
in our case there has been no splendid alloy of heroism to 
offset the wrong-doing. Our offenses have been those of 
cold, shortsighted selfishness and of a mean timidity which 
has invited, and has therefore been partly responsible for, 
the German and British offenses against us. We could have 
stopped them had we had any real leadership in Washing- 
ton ; had we shown any firmness of soul and readiness to 
make effort and encounter risk for high ideals. "Kept us 
out of war!" If the Wilson administration could point to 
one sacrifice this nation has made for the right, to one 
indication of willingness to face loss on behalf of a princi- 
ple, it might deserve some credit. But it deserves none. 
Thanks *to President Wilson, we have shown ourselves too 
craven to stand up for our own rights, or for the rights 
of weaker peoples. If we had done as we ought to havf* 
done, our neutrality would have been a badge of honor 
and not one of shame. If we had shown emphatically that 
we intended to give a square deal to everyone, and to de- 
mand a square deal for and from everyone ; if we had done 



National Rights and International Duty 91 

for Mexico what under President McKinley we did for 
Cuba; if we had protested against the invasion of Belgium; 
if we had summarily stopped the murder of our men, wo- 
men and children by German submarines, and had then 
effectively asserted the freedom of the seas against the 
British, we would certainly have brought about the recog- 
nition of our rights, and very possibly would have inspired 
sufficient confidence and respect in the belligerents to have 
enabled us to secure peace before this time. Had we so 
acted, we would have proved ourselves loyal Americans in 
the first place, and in the next place we would have shown 
a veritable, instead of a sham, loyalty to humanity. We 
would have proved that our devotion to humanity was more 
then mere lip worship. But let it be understood from the 
beginning that never can we or any other nation take such 
a position unless there is both preparation in advance, and 
also the willingness to sacrifice something in order to com- 
pel the observance of the nation's own sovereign rights, 
and in addition to enable it to perform its duty to the rest 
of mankind. 



THE MEXICAN INIQUITY 
Phoenix, Arizona, October 21, 1916 



WHAT has happened to our people in Mexico and here 
along the border, offers the clearest possible illustra- 
tion of what happens to any nation whose government be- 
haves with the vacillation and timidity shown by Mr. Wilson 
in our foreign affairs wherever he has had to deal with any 
foe of whom he was in the slightest degree afraid. 

In Mexico when the Revolution gathered headway, 
there were many foreigners. There were English, Ger- 
mans, Japanese and French. There were also Americans, 
Spaniards and Chinese. Mexico was afraid of and respected 
Germany, England, Japan and France. She neither feared 
nor respected the United States or China; and she did not 
believe that Spain at the moment could act against her. In 
consequence it appears that during these disturbances, as 
far as can be gathered, there has not been one German killed 
in Mexico, and only one Englishman and two Frenchmen. 
I can not find that any Japanese were killed. These figures 
may not be quite accurate, but they are substantially ac- 
curate. The minute the Frenchmen were killed, the French 
Government served such summary notice on Mexico that it 
has been exceedingly careful not to kill any others. When 
the Englishman, Benton, was killed, not merely did England 
flame up, but it is actually true that far more interest was 
excited in this country than was shown over all of our own 
men, women and children who were killed in Mexico. There 
have been no further outrages on the lives of British sub- 
jects. The Germans are not only safe, but at Tampico, for in- 
stance, enjoy special privileges. The Japanese enjoy the 
same consideration. But meanwhile, according to the best 
information at our disposal, the Mexicans have killed over 
three hundred Chinese; over five hundred Americans; and 
at least a couple of hundred Spaniards. I ask you to con- 

92 



The Mexican Iniquity 93 

sider these facts. The MexicaiivS have not killed a single 
German and only one Englishman. But they have killed 
several hundred Americans and several hundred Chinese. 
They class the Germans and Englishmen as belonging to 
nations able to protect the lives of their citizens ; whereas, 
thanks to Mr. Wilson, they regard the Americans and 
Chinese as equally safe to murder, outrage and plunder. I 
ask the people of this country to consider these facts for 
themselves, and to draw their own conclusions ; and if they 
have ordinary self-respect, if they have feelings of ordinary 
patriotism, they cannot consent to continue in power the 
Administration that is responsible for such a condition of 
affairs. 

American Citizenship a Handicap 

The natural effect of this policy is shown by the fact 
that it is no longer safe for foreign companies in Mexico to 
have American employees or to be operated under an Amer- 
ican name. Instance after instance of this kind has been 
brought to my attention with the personal request that I do 
not use it for fear that damage should come to those giving 
me the information. I know case after case where this has 
been true of industrial, mining and pastoral enterprises, but 
where my informants feared for their lives if the informa- 
tion was made public. There are, however, published state- 
ments of specific instances to the same effect. For example, 
I saw a public statement issued by the Santa Gertrudis 
Company, Limited, issued at London the 21st of July last, 
which notifies the shareholders that it has become neces- 
sary "to withdraw the American management and staff, and 
to arrange for the continuance of operations under English 
and Mexican management." I have received letter after 
letter from men in Mexico, who have stated that they have 
tried to obtain German or English citizenship and abandon 
American citizenship because as Americans they were liable 
to insult and murder, and as Germans or Englishmen they 
were comparatively safe. I know a Boer who was deported 
by the English from South Africa after the Boer war, but 
who in Mexico has established his rights as an Englishman, 
not as an American citizen, because our government gives 
no protection to its people. 



94 Americanism and Preparedness 

Actions Due to I^'ear 

Thanks to President Wilson and the professional paci- 
fists it is safe for Mexican bandits to murder Americans 
and Chinese, and to take their property, and the murderers 
and* bandits are encouraged by the acts and utterances of 
the President of the United States and his authorized rep- 
resentatives. Remember also that these bandits are the 
worst foes of the decent citizens of Mexico, and that these, 
honest and law-abiding Mexicans have been the people most 
damaged by President Wilson's policy of tame submission 
to infamy. What President Wilson's motives a,re it is hard 
to guess. As reported in the press, not a few of Mr. Wil- 
son's own supporters take the ground that he acts in this 
manner because he is influenced by downright fear. On 
August 8th last it was announced in the press that Mr. 
Frank B. Vrooman, Democratic National Committeeman, of 
Colorado, stated at Denver that "President Wilson had 
wisely avoided war with Mexico because there are 400,000 
Japanese soldiers in Mexico, and because both Germany and 
Japan are planning to overthrow the Monroe Doctrine, and 
therefore war with Mexico would mean war with both these 
countries." Mr. Vrooman's premises are unsound. There 
is slight reason to believe that there are as many as 4000 
Japanese of military age in Mexico. But his statement, if 
correctly reported (and it has not been contradicted), is a 
frank admission and assertion of his belief, the belief of one 
of President Wilson's close political admirers and sup- 
porters, that President Wilson is afraid to interfere in Mex- 
ico, because he is afraid lest Germany and Japan stop us 
when we try to exact atonement for the murder of American 
citizens and the destruction of American property. Re- 
cently Vice-President Marshall is reported in the press as 
having said that for us to take action in Mexico (in defense " 
of the lives and property of our people) would be to "make 
war on Berlin," and that therefore we must not act against 
Mexico. I have seen no denial of this statement. In other 
words, these champions of Mr. Wilson justify his conduct 
— conduct otherwise utterly inexplicable — on the ground 
that he is afraid to protect American life in Mexico, lest he 
thereby offend great old-world powers. Why, if this state- 



The Mexican Iniquity 95 

ment is true, it is itself the bitterest indictment of Mr. 
Wilson's policy, and proves his abandonment of the Monroe 
Doctrine. His own friends thus announce that he tamely 
acquiesces in the murder of American men, and the outrage 
of American women by Mexican bandits for fear that he 
should offend Japan and Germany. For the three and a half 
years of his term of office he has kept us in a condition of 
such military and naval impotence that we dare not assert 
even such elementary rights as that American citizens shall 
be secure in life and property, not merely in a foreign land, 
but even within our own borders — for remember that scores 
of our citizens have been killed and wounded within our own 
boundaries. 

Mr. Wilson Condemns Himself 

Remember always that the infamies that have been 
committed in Mexico have been explicitly set forth by 
President Wilson himself through his Secretary of State on 
June 20 last. President Wilson, in the course of his efforts 
to shield Carranza, denounced the truthful statement of the 
hideous conditions in Mexico as being a "traffic in false- 
hood" designed to "create intolerable friction between our 
Government and Carranza's in the interest of certain own- 
ers of Mexican properties." He made these deliberate 
charges on March 20th last. Senator Fall promptly chal- 
lenged President Wilson to name these alleged conspirators 
and also challenged him to make public the documents in 
the State Department. As always when challenged fear- 
lessly. President Wilson promptly flinched. He has not 
dared to publish the documents in the State Department, 
and by failing to publish the names of the alleged conspira- 
tors during these seven months, he has admitted that his 
statement was without foundation in fact. But this is not 
all. His note of June 20th is the fullest and most complete 
admission of all that has been charged and all that he has de- 
nied or palliated. The facts therein set forth furnish a 
complete and irrefutable condemnation of his own policy 
towards Mexico and towards Carranza. 

This authoritative statement issued by Mr. Wilson 
through his Secretary of State sets forth that for three years 
there has been continuous bloodshed and disorder in 



96 Americanism and Preparedness 

Mexico; that Americans have been barbarously murdered, 
and vast properties developed by American capital and en- 
terprise destroyed; that the murderers have not been 
brought to justice; that during the past nine months there 
have been constant invasions, depredations and murders on 
American soil by Mexican bandits; that American soldiers 
have been killed ; American ranches raided, American rail- 
way trains wrecked and plundered, and American towns 
destroyed ; and that Carranza's soldiers and adherents took 
part in the looting, burning and killing; that the murders 
were characterized by ruthless brutality and barbarous 
mutilation ; that^some of the leaders in these atrocities have 
not only received protection, but encouragement and aid 
from Carranza's Government; that during this time there 
was instance after instance of the barbarous slaughter of 
unoffending Americans in Mexico itself, in addition to the 
heinous crimes committed in murdering, burning and 
plundering on American soil; that Carranza's generals 
made no effort to stop the crimes, and that Carranza him- 
self was either unable, or else considered it undesirable, to 
punish the criminals; that Carranza gave neither co-opera- 
tion nor assistance to the American troops who pursued 
the bandits ; that on the contrary, Carranza's adherents 
halted the American pursuit at Parral and became the pro- 
tectors of Villa and his bandits ; and that Carranza's Gov- 
ernment has shown that it does not intend or desire that 
the outlaws, bandits and criminals who have been guilty 
of these murders and outrages shall be captured, de- 
stroyed or dispersed, either by American troops or by Mexi- 
can troops. 

In the above statement I have used the exact words of 
Mr. Wilson's Secretary, merely condensing the statement 
and keeping exactly its sense. I have not used one word 
not contained in the statement. No indictment by me of 
Mr. Wilson's policy could be as strong as that furnished by 
himself. Immediately afterwards occurred the treacherous 
murder of our troops at Carrizal. Then Mr. Wilson be- 
came frightened, bowed in abject submission to Carranza, 
kissed the hand that was red with the blood of American 
men and women, and, inasmuch as he dared not hold Car- 



The Mexican hdquity 97 

ranza responsible, began in unmanly fashion to scold Car- 
ranza's wretched American victims. 

Mr. Wilson says he has "kept us out of war." The 
Democratic platform says that the Mexicans "have made 
war upon and murdered our people." For once the Demo- 
cratic platform told the truth. Mr. Wilson says that some 
of the murdered men were barbarously mutilated. In the 
press one such case of mutilation is described. Two troop- 
ers of the 12th U. S. Cavalry, Henry Stubblefield and 
Richard Johnson, one from Virginia and one from New 
York, were killed by Carranza's troops at Progreso, Texas, 
on September 29th, 1915. Stubblefield's body was found 
soon after the fight. Johnson was reported missing, but 
Mexican prisoners informed our officers that Johnson had 
been tortured and beheaded, his body thrown into the Rio 
Grande, and his head and ears cut off and displayed to the 
populace of the Mexican town of Concepcion as evidence 
that American troops had been routed. This was not an 
exceptional instance; it was typical of what has gone on 
unchecked in Mexico. 

What Could Have Been Done 

Mr. Wilson and his followers are fond of asking, when 
we criticize his action, "What would you have done?" 
Either one of two courses could properly have been fol- 
lowed. It would have been defensible to have recognized 
Huerta, in view of the fact that other great powers had 
recognized him; and, of course, it was quite indefensible 
to refuse to recognize him and yet recognize Benavides in 
Peru, and Carranza in Mexico. In such event we would 
have held Huerta to "strict responsibility" by acts, for re- 
storing order in Mexico and for protecting American life 
and property. 

This course would have been defensible. Personally, it 
seems to me that it would have been even better to have done 
exactly what Mr. Wilson said he would do, but did not do. 
He said to Congress on August 27th, 1913 : "We should 
let everyone who assumes to exercise authority in any part 
of Mexico know in the most unequivocal way that we shall 
vigilantly watch the fortunes of those Americans who can- 



98 Americanism mid Preparedness 

not get away, and shall hold those responsible for their 
sufferings and losses to a definite reckoning. This can be 
and will be put beyond the possibility of a misunderstand- 
ing." On the same day he sent to the American Consul- 
General and Consular Agents in Mexico two telegrams in- 
structing them "to notify all officials, military or civil, 
exercising authority, that they would be held strictly re- 
sponsible for any harm done to Americans or for injury to 
their property." These were fine words. Excellent words ! 
They were as good as the words in the Democratic Plat- 
form, four years ago and now, to the effect that all Ameri- 
can citizens, at home and abroad, must be protected in 
their rights, and no wrongs permitted against their persons 
or property. The trouble is that neither the promises and 
menaces of President Wilson nor the pledges in the Demo- 
cratic platform were worth the paper on which they were 
written or the breath expended in uttering them. 

Disgraceful Withdrawal at Tampico 

Mr. Wilson's notice was explicit and emphatic. If he 
had meant what he said and if he had possessed the small- 
est fraction of the resolution and courage of such a Demo- 
cratic President as Andrew Jackson he would have lived 
up to this notice. He would have acted at once against 
every leader, whether Huerta, Villa or Carranza or any one 
else, who permitted injury to American life and property or 
who failed to prevent it; and if necessary, he would have 
sent some such man as General Leonard Wood into the 
country to behave precisely as we behaved in Cuba, to re- 
habilitate Mexico and to restore her to her people just as 
we did in the case of Cuba, when order and civilization 
again obtained in the country. Instead of doing this, Presi- 
dent Wilson stood idly by while hundreds of Amsricans 
were murdered. He has not protected American lives and 
American property. All that he has done has been from 
time to time to help one bandit leader against some other 
bandit leader. The Tampico incident furnishes the best 
proof of this fact. There were 2300 American refugees in 
Tampico, whose lives were threatened by the Mexican 
revolutionists. American gunboats were in the harbor to 



The Mexican Iniquity 99 

protect them. But President Wilson was not concerned 
with their protection. He was concerned solely with helping 
his then friend Villa, and antagonizing Villa's foe, Huerta. 
He was furnishing Villa with the arms which Villa used for 
the slaughter of Americans. We have it on the authority 
of Mr. Wilson's friend and champion. Senator Lewis, of 
Illinois, that Mr. Wilson actually intended to recognize Villa, 
the murderer, raider and robber, as President, but was 
afraid to do so because of the Republican opposition. The 
American ships at Tampico were withdrawn from this duty 
of protecting the lives of American men, women and chil- 
dren from would-be murderers, and were sent to operate 
against Huerta at Vera Cruz, in the interest of Villa. The 
Americans owed their lives to the protection of the German 
and British warships. Whether this dreadful betrayal of 
duty was due immediately to the direct action of Secretary 
Daniels, or to the action of the officers whom he had put in 
charge at Tampico and Vera Cruz, is of no consequence. 
The ultimate responsibility for this and for all the other 
shameful episodes in Mexico, rests directly on President 
Wilson himself. 

Mexico Ruined 

President Wilson has seen the Mexicans during these 
three and a half years become socially, politically and 
morally barikrupt. He has not helped Mexico. He has 
ruined Mexico. The jungle is creeping over the great plan- 
tations. The cattle on the ranches have been wantonly and 
wastefully slaughtered. The thoroughbred stock farms 
which were the work of decades have been destroyed. Irri- 
gation plants are out of service, railroad terminals have 
been burnt, rolling stock and locomotives broken up and 
damaged beyond repair. Mines that furnished employment 
to scores of thousands are standing idle. The National 
Treasury has been emptied. A paper currency, debased and 
worthless, has been substituted for the nation's money. 
All the means of an orderly economic life have been de- 
stroyed. An epidemic of typhus rages that twice has men- 
aced the health of our border cities. The country no longer 
produces sufficient foodstuffs. Actual starvation is upon the 
people. Sixty thousand white men, who were one of the 



100 Americanism and Preparedness 

great civilizing and developing forces of Mexico, are in exile. 
The jungle, the desert and a cruel, primitive savagery hold 
sway. Carranza's government is but a shell of authority, 
based on murder and plunder, limited to a few of the larger 
cities and railroad lines, in antagonism to every organizing 
force upon which a government can rest. The absolute 
refusal of the outside world to lend it money is evidence of 
the low credit in which it is held, and is also a grim com- 
mentary on Mr. Wilson's folly in assailing the American 
miners, ranchers, workingmen, investors and business men, 
who alone rendered possible a healthy prosperity in Mexico. 
In the message above referred to President Wilson said 
that it was our duty to discharge the trust that "the great 
powers of the world had placed in our hands with reference 
to Mexico." But he has done nothing to discharge this trust. 
He has sent our sailors and soldiers to invade Mexican soil. 
These men have shot down Mexicans and have themselves 
been killed. But nothing has resulted, except to increase 
the hatred of the Mexicans for Americans. He has con- 
tinually protested that he would not intervene in Mexico, 
and yet he has intervened continually, in every way, from 
diplomacy to war ; but always with futility, and always with 
timidity. He has sinned heavily against Mexico. He has 
sinned against humanity. He has sinned most heavily 
against the United States. He has allowed Mexico to drift 
into bloody anarchy. Mexico needs peace and security. We 
can give peace and security to Mexico, but only if we show 
courage and resolution. If we fail, then some foreign power 
will, in the end, itself do the task, and make Mexico its 
servant, to our own irreparable damage. Mr. Wilson is 
inviting this disaster, 

Mexico and the Panama Canal 

It can not be a matter of indifference to us what kind of 
a government arises in Mexico. Mexico in its geographical 
and physical aspects, with the Panama Canal adjoining, rep- 
resents to the United States what the Balkans and Asia 
Minor represent to Europe. There the Dardanelles and the 
Suez Canal are the prize, valuable as the Panama Canal is 
valuable to us, as a source of profit and national power. 



The Mexican Iniquity 101 

After a decade of internal warfare and struggle in the Bal- 
kans, the present world war resulted. If we let Mexico sink 
into permanent anarchy, and show ourselves too feeble to 
restore order, then sooner or later some old-world military 
power will itself step in and take possession, with results as 
disastrous to us as the anarchy in the Balkan peninsula has 
been disastrous to Europe. Mexico, like Asia Minor, is a 
mountainous peninsula. It dominates the Caribbean and has 
immediate access to both ends of the Panama Canal. The 
government in Mexico must necessarily interact with and 
upon the governments and population of the northern half of 
the South American continent. A strong and stable govern- 
ment in Mexico, working in harmonious relations with the 
United States, could establish security for property and 
make it possible for American enterprise to carry railroads, 
irrigation works and other benefits of civilization into that 
territory. The development of the Mexican railroad net 
would enable the United States, in case the need ever arose, 
to help ward off aggression by a foreign power, A railroad 
extending to the Panama Canal would give us access by land 
to the Canal, with which the future of the United States is so 
intimately bound up^ Such a Mexican government, repre- 
senting the best forces of that country, would be eager to 
work with us by the free exchange of what they have to give 
in return for the advantages of what we can offer them. Such 
a government would be of incalculable benefit to Mexico it- 
self, and would also add greatly to the security of the United 
States. A weak, disorganized Mexican government as a 
willing or unwilling ally of a foreign power, hostile to our 
country, might do us irreparable damage. 

Intelligence and Self -Sacrifice Necessary 

It will take foresight, intelligence and self-sacrifice on 
the part of our statesmen and our people to solve these 
problems in the right way now so as to ward off danger in 
the future. President Wilson's policies have been without 
plan or purpose; he has not looked beyond tomorrow; he 
has had no objects aside from momentary political profit 
at home, and possibly the gratification of personal spite 
toward, or personal favoritism for, some particular bandit. 



102 Ame7'icanism and Preparedness 

His attitude has shifted hither and thither. At an enormous 
expense to all that is good and stable in Mexico and at a 
terrible cost of American lives, property and prestige, he 
has lifted Carranza into power. Through the maneuvering 
of an A-B-C convention he placed him upon his shaky ped- 
estal and today, by the expedient of another I-O-U conven- 
tion, he is trying to prop and bolster the tottering structure. 
Yet at this very time, Carranza's government, which is 
wholly the child of President Wilson's diplomacy, turns 
against us, and thereby foreshadows the course that this 
same man Carranza would take if, by the aid of such loans, 
as it has been vaguely hinted that the present Admmistra- 
tion is trying to secure for him in financial circles, his gov- 
ernment would become strong. This is shown in the New 
York World, Wilson's administration organ. In a dispatch 
from its special representative at Newport, on October 10th, 
it set forth that as soon as the German submarines began to 
operate off the coast, the Carranza delegates at the confer- 
ence "became elated at the prospect of this country becom- 
ing involved in further international entanglements and 
their attitude stiffened considerably." The threat thus re- 
vealed in the attitude of these Carranza agents is a sinister 
omen of the future danger that lurks in Mr. Wilson's di- 
plomacy. Some day this diplomacy will be paid for by this 
country in the bloodshed, suffering and disaster of war. 



PREPAREDNESS: 
MILITARY, INDUSTRIAL AND SPIRITUAL 

Denver, Colorado, October 24, 1916 



I SPEAK to you especially of the prime duty of self-de- 
fense. I abhor unjust and wanton war. I shall always 
do. as I always have done, everything to secure honorable 
and lasting peace. But it is folly to say that w^e shall never 
be engaged in war. The events of the past two years show 
that as the world now is, such an assumption by any nation 
is not only folly, but criminal folly. Washington, who was 
the very opposjte of the pacifists of his day, said that this 
country could not expect always to avoid war. His words 
were true then. They are true now. If this nation con- 
tinues its national existence long enough it is sure at some 
time in the future to be involved in war exactly as at times 
in the past it has been . involved in war. Our prime duty 
is so to prepare as to minimize the number of occasions 
when war will come and to ensure that, when it does come, 
it shall result neither dishonorably nor disastrously for the 
American people. At this moment we are not ready in any 
way, physically or spiritually, to face a serious foe. We 
owe this lamentable fact to several causes, but especially to 
the evil leadership given our people in high places. Mr. 
Wilson has not only been too proud to fight, but has also 
been too proud to prepare. 

The people of this country should provide for a first- 
class navy, a navy relative to the other powers what our 
navy was in February, 1909, when the battle-fleet returned 
from the cruise around the world. We should have a regular 
army of a quarter of a million short-service men, which 
would give us a mobile army of 125,000 or 150,000 to deal 
with such exigencies as that which the feebleness of our 
government has brought about on the Mexican border at 
this moment. And this should be only the beginning. A 

103 



104 Americanis7)i and Preparedness 

freeman must not merely hire others to do his fighting for 
him. If he wishes permanently to remain a freeman he 
must fit himself to fight for his own rights, that is, for his 
country's rights. 

System Should Be Changed 

I honor the National Guardsmen who are at the front. 
They have the true soldierly stuff" in them. But the system 
under which they have been sent is an atrocious one, and 
should be changed at once. They have been tricked into 
going into what they supposed was a war on behalf of the 
country. When they entered the militia most of them had no 
idea that they would be Conscripted as they have been. Their 
sense of honor has forbidden them to refuse going. But 
they should never have been sent for mere police duty ; for 
remember that, thanks to Mr. Wilson's tame refusal to 
punish the Mexican bandits, we now have on the border a 
force of American soldiers from ten to twenty times as 
numerous as the bandits across the border; and yet this 
force does nothing. Many men have gone who have been 
obliged to leave their wives and children to suffer actual 
want, arid who have permanently injured their professional 
or business careers, or definitely lost their jobs, because 
they had to go to the front and spend months away from 
their business, awaj'" from their homes, to make good the 
damage done by the utter folly of our rulers in Washington. 

These rulers in Washington were not really interested 
in Preparedness. They were not really interested in the 
defense of their country. They thought only of their own 
political fortunes in the immediate future. They refused 
to give us expert military legislation. They gave us political 
military legislation ; legislation designed to secure votes 
next November at the cost of the lives of the gallant ofl^icers 
and men of the regular army ; at the cost of the lives of the 
civilians, men, women and children on the border, and in 
Mexico; and at the cost of the well-being of thousands of 
the families of national guardsmen who had themselves 
been sent to the Mexican border. The legislation of the last 
session should be repealed and the work of preparedness 
entered upon with serious purpose. The Hay military law 



Preparedness: Military, Industrial and Spiritual 105 

was evil from almost every standpoint. The system of 
militia pay which it embodied, taken in connection with its 
other features, made it an unworthy political expedient 
designed to transform the militia of the several states into 
a huge political machine, dangerous to the well-being of 
the country and of its citizen soldiery. Most regrettably 
this feature of the militia pay, in its present. unwise form, 
and the other unwise features of the bill, are due in no small 
degree to the influence of a powerful militia body on the 
President and on Congress. This lobby represented not the 
military interests of the nation, nor the interest of the 
immense majority of the rank and file and junior officers 
of the National Guard, but the interests of a limited num- 
ber of officers,, most of them of higher rank. Replacing and 
repealing this law, we should have a law restoring the 
militia to its former status and establishing a system of 
obligatory universal military training and service under 
which we would avoid the cruel injustice and hardship in- 
flicted this summer on so many thousands of the National 
Guardsmen who have been sent to the border — not to make 
war for the country, but to help Mr. Wilson wobble between 
feeble peace and feeble war until after election. 

Universal Training and Service Needed 

See that your representatives vote for a large and effi- 
cient navy and a small but efficient regular army. But 
always remember that in a free democracy no man should 
have the right to vote in the civil affairs of the country if 
he does not perform all the duties required by the country, 
not only in peace, but in war; and he cannot perform these 
duties in time of war unless he fits himself to perform them, 
unless he trains himself to perform them, in time of peace. 
I believe in universal military obligatory training of all our 
young men in time of peace; and, in time of war, in uni- 
versal military service for every man and every woman in 
whatever position it is deemed that man or women can best 
render such service to the nation. 

Federal National Guard Inadequate 

The mobilization of the militia on the border has proved 
that the Federal National Guard is a broken reed from 



106 Americanism and Preparedness 

the standpoint of National Preparedness, and represents no 
adequate national strength either to repel sudden attack or 
to carry on prolonged defensive warfare. The amiable 
pacifist who was chosen by Mr. Wilson, with his usual ex- 
quisite sense of entire military unfitness, to be Secretary of 
War, prattled with Bryan-like cheerfulness about how "mo- 
bilizations take place easily and need not be upon magnif- 
icent scale in advance." Then on June 18th, working on 
this theory of easy and unprepared-for mobilization, he 
commanded the entire National Guard to mobilize imme- 
diately. After ten days of maximum effort just twelve per 
cent, of the men were started for the border. Over thirty 
per cent, of the Guard were found to be unfit for duty. 
Many of the men who started for the boi^der had never re- 
ceived a single day's training. Many had never fired a rifle. 
Most of the cavalry regiments had no horses. Half the 
artillery batteries had no guns. I know one division in 
which, after three months, ten per cent, of the men have not 
received their blouses and twenty per cent, have not received 
their rifles. Some of the regiments on the border have 
learned with wonderful quickness and are in fine shape. 
Some have made no improvement. A few have proved 
utterly worthless, because their officers were so untrained 
and so unfit for command that they could not teach and 
guide and help over difficulties and care for their men, who 
became little better than a mob. The best men in the best 
regiments on the border have profited much; have profited 
more than men who go to the excellent Plattsburg and 
similar military training camps have profited. But now, 
after over four months, a first-class National Guard officer, 
who is with his regiment on the border, writes me : "Here 
we have all the organized troops in the country on the 
border and they only total a very small force, part of which 
is ineffective ; I should say that, after three months, we have 
between 50,000 and 75,000 useful troops in all." In other 
words, after three months we did not assemble an army fit 
to resist a single German or Japanese army corps, such as 
could be landed in New York in a fortnight or in San Fran- 
cisco in a month. President Wilson has refused to read the 
dreadful lesson written in fire and blood across the face of 



Preparedness : Military, Industrial and Spiritual 107 

the world during the last two years and a quarter. He has 
left us shamefully unready to protect ourselves or do our 
duty by others. 

What a National Guard Officer Says 

The letter of the National Guardsman I have quoted 
above puts certain facts, in which I believe with all my 
heart, so clearly, that, coming as it does from a man in the 
field, I quote it : 

"I am more and more impressed with the need of uni- 
versal service, and its extreme desirability, even if it were 
not needed. With any kind of effective universal service we 
could, in the event of an emergency like the present, raise 
and officer half a million fairly well-trained troops without 
disturbing anything. Of course, I realize that we must 
keep the cartridge makers in their factories and the equip- 
ment makers all at their work, so that the troops in the 
field can be properly equipped and supplied. That should 
mean that every voter is card catalogued, so that in time 
of war you could tell whether he should be used as a general 
or a captain or a private or an equipment manufacturer or a 
railroad operator. They are all necessary and part of the 
organization of the country as it should be arranged. 

"I am terribly afraid people will soon begin to say, 
'Things are quieting down, we should get over our hysteria 
for preparedness.' That would be an awful calamity. We 
have been unable to handle the situations that have come 
up so far, which, thank heavens, have not been as serious 
as they might, but things will arise in the near future that 
we must be ready for or we will lose our ability to handle 
our own future destiny. We got our liberty by war and 
I think it may easily require war for us to preserve it. 

"Even if universal service did not appeal as necessary 
I know it would be most desirable. Here I have seen men, 
undeveloped, slovenly, or natural butts of ridicule, in three 
months of proper military training made into strong, 
clean, self-respecting men. We could do that by the mil- 
lion annually if' we had the chance. It would improve the 
whole type of the whole nation. 

"Add to this, mixing all our people of all our diflferent 



108 Americanism and Preparedness 

classes under equal circumstances and conditions, and the 
help to democracy would be wonderful. The hard part 
would be the choice of officers, who must be educated and 
have the habit of command; and yet every one must be 
given the chance to rise if he really has the stuff in him." 

Switzerland Should Be Our Model 

This is only asking that we in this great Republic do 
what has been done for many decades in the little Republic 
of Switzerland. Switzerland is a more genuinely Demo- 
cratic Republic than we are, and there is nothing that has 
helped her people more, physically, mentally and morally, 
or that has done more to perpetuate and increase the genu- 
ineness of her Democracy, than the universal training, of 
the kind I advocate, which her sons have received. So far 
from being militarism, this kind of universal training is 
a healthy and efficient antiseptic to militarism. An army 
so trained, which would consist of the citizenship of the 
country in arms, would never be used for aggression. Its 
only purpose would be for self-defense. Every intelligent 
lover of peace, every peace lover whose convictions spring 
from reason instead of from sheer hysterical timidity and 
folly, ought to welcome the calling into being of such a 
system. It is the very system which was demanded in the 
name of peace and humanity by the great French Socialist 
Juares, who advocated it on the ground that while it would 
not guarantee nations against war, it would tend most 
strongly in that direction by creating a force efficient for 
defense and very unlikely to be used for offense. 

Switzerland in the time of the Napoleonic Wars was 
trampled on by all of the surrounding belligerent nations, 
saw gigantic battles between them fought on its territory, 
and was finally annexed by one of them, and its young men 
drafted into her armi-es. The present war, one hundred 
years later, has seen her territory respected, although had 
she not been ready she would have unquestionably suffered 
the fate of Belgium. The reason for the difference is that 
one hundred years ago there was no universal training 
among her men, nor any aptitude for war on the part of 
the nation, which therefore fell a helpless prey to the 



Preparedness : Military, Industrial and Spiritual 109 

military powers. Now there is universal service ; the peo- 
ple are trained to defend themselves; and because of the 
fact that they had been thus trained, that they were efficient, 
that they had prepared their strength, and were ready 
to use their strength, they were spared the necessity of 
using it. Also remember that this military training of 
the Swiss has enormously helped them in civic, social and 
industrial matters. It has increased each man's industrial 
capacity; it has taught him not to be slack and inefficient, 
to work hard, to be clean and punctual, to respect himself 
and to respect others. It has benefited him morally, 
mentally and physically. It makes him more lawabiding; 
it is more than a coincidence that relatively to their numbers 
there are in Switzerland but one-tenth as many homicides 
as in the United States. 

Universal Training Beneficial in Peace 

I advocate universal military training as much because 
of what it will mean to this nation in peace, as because of 
what it will mean to this nation in war. Washington said : 
"A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined." 
This is simply another way of saying that there should be 
universal obligatory military training for our young men; 
and surely we need the discipline, all of us, in civil life 
just as much as in military life. Such training is em- 
phatically American, emphatically Democratic, emphatically 
anti-militaristic; and every young man who enjoys it will 
be a better citizen in time of peace, better able to hold his 
own, and more desirous of doing his duty by his fellows. 
At present only those who can pay for it can get such 
training and discipline. This is unjust. At present, in the 
event of the outbreak of war, the officers' commissions must, 
rightly and properly, be given to the boys who have fitted 
themselves for the jobs. Therefore under the present sys- 
tem, instead of having all the boys, without any regard to 
whether their parents are or are not people of means, 
treated alike and the best men made officers, we find com- 
missions limited to those who can afford to pay for their 
training. Inevitably under present conditions, if a war 
came, a very much larger proportion of the officers would 



110 Americanism and Preparedness 

be chosen from this class than from the class with less 
means. In addition to this, the shirk, the coward, the 
mere money getter, the creature without patriotism, would 
stay at home and would try for the job the patriotic man 
left when he went to the front. I have actually seen, 
even this summer, cases where men who have been sent to 
the front in the National Guard have had their jobs taken by 
men whom, I am sure, no mere appeal to patriotism would 
ever be able to get to the front. 

The democratic thing is to give all of the men, rich 
and poor, a chance on equal terms to prove the stuff there is 
in them, so as to secure each man his rights. Then, in 
order to exact from each man the full performance of his 
duty, make the lazy man, the selfish man, the mere greedy 
money getter, the poltroon and the pacifist do their part 
of the work of war, when war comes, and run their full 
share of the danger, instead of sitting at ease at home 
to profit by the courage and self-sacrifice of their more 
patriotic brothers. This is imperatively needed, from the 
standpoint of the nation. It will secure our national effi- 
ciency in war. It will immensely help our individual effi- 
ciency in time of peace. It will benefit us individually in 
soul, mind and body. It will make the average man more 
self-respecting and law-abiding, better able to shift for 
himself, and to work for and in conjunction with others. 

This training will be of immense consequence in in- 
creasing our power of collective action. There is no more 
thoroughly democratizing agent than the dog tent. Under 
such a system of universal training all the young men of 
the nation would for several months do the same hard, 
healthy work, and live together on the same terms. The 
son of the railroad president, and the son of the brakeman, 
the son of the farmer and the son of the lawyer, the son 
of the bricklayer and the son of the banker, would all have 
the same training, the same chance; and the officers w^ould 
be chosen squarely on their merits from the boys best fit 
for the jobs. The most important feature will be the de- 
velopment of the officers, for whom, after they had been 
thus chosen from the ranks, there would need be a special 
training course established. 



Preparedness: Militari/, Industrial and Spiritual 111 

The Only Democratic System 

Let all the young men go on the same hikes, and work in 
the same drills, let them become sergeants, lieutenants and 
captains in fair competition with one another ; and let them 
understand and appreciate and make allowances for one an- 
other. The man who comes out from that training will in 
civil life be infinitely more fit to perform his duties as an 
American citizen. He and his fellows will be stirred by a 
more genuine patriotism. They will understand that there 
is no such thing as real patriotism save in so far as it con- 
notes the spirit of sacrifice, of service, of comradeship and 
of brotherhood, of devotion to duty, and to lofty ideals. 
They will learn to put service first, duty first, country first, 
and to look with abhorrence and scorn on the man who puts 
safety first, ahead of duty and country. They will learn 
how to act with self-reliance and with self-control, and they 
will also learn how to accomplish most in acting with others, 
in disciplined fashion, in a spirit of brotherhood, and with 
the power to subordinate each his own case and enjoyment 
to the common welfare, the collective good. Such service 
would fit us for our duty in our collective tasks, political, 
social and industrial. We can best ensure the proper per- 
formance of these collective tasks of peace, in a spirit of jus- 
tice, of generosity, and of mutual understanding, if the 
young men of this nation, on their entry to manhood, are 
trained as I have advocated. 

Military preparedness is only the foundation of, and 
safeguard for, social and industrial preparedness; and 
therefore, for the effort to increase our individual efficiency 
and at the same time to see that the fruits of this efficiency 
are divided with reasonable fairness and justice. 

Federal Civil Service Debauched 

Mr. Wilson recently said that the supporters of Mr. 
Hughes included incongruous elements. The Democratic 
Party, with Mr. Wilson at its head, is itself composed of 
utterly conflicting elements with no sincere bond of union 
except the desire to secure Federal ofl^ice. In consequence 
the internal legislation Mr. Wilson has obtained has had 
to be obtained by the exchange of offices for congressional 



112 Americanism and Preparedness 

support ; and, as a result, the Federal Civil Service has been 
debauched as never before, and Washington has witnessed 
the worst administration of the executive departments we 
have had for thirty years. If specifications are needed, 1 
refer you to the statements of dispassionate, non-partisan 
experts in administration, such men as Gifford Pinchot, 
Lucius Swift and William Dudley Foulke. 

There are certain things for which Mr. Wilson and his 
party claim credit where credit can only be awarded them 
by emphasizing the duplicity of their action. The banking 
law is a good law in certain of its provisions; but these 
provisions are those of the Aldrich bill, which before elec- 
tion the Democrats so frantically denounced. They de- 
nounced in similar manner a Tariff Commission and an 
Industrial Commission; and they are now in rather im- 
potent fashion feeling after both. They have passed a 
Child Labor law (which is so drawn, however, that it may 
be utterly ineffective) after Mr. Wilson had emphatically 
declared against it. They champion a law which will make 
the needed revival of our shipping by private enterprise 
more difficult than ever. Their tariff law was working ruin 
to our industry until the war created an outside tariff more 
protective than any we have ever previously had. 

Mr. Wilson. has endeavored to satisfy both the profes- 
sional pacifists and the men desiring preparedness, by per- 
suading each side that he stood for something the other did 
not want. He is making a similar effort as regards labor 
and business. The President is astute and farsighted in 
his management of politicians for party and personal ends. 
He believes that the solid South will vote for anything with 
the Democratic label wholly without regard to the principle 
involved. The solid South is ultra-conservative; but inas- 
much as in the South the negro and the poor white laborer 
are both of them unorganized, an appeal to the class fol- 
lowers of trades unionism in the North does not disturb 
Mr. Wilson's power in the South. In consequence the 
Democratic Party under Mr. Wilson's leadership seeks to 
develop as a radical laboy party in the North, so as there to 
capitalize the labor vote, while remaining reactionary in the 
South, and endeavoring to reassure the big money interests 



Preparedness: Military, Industrial and Spiritual 113 

because of what the South can do in national matters. The 
result of such efforts cannot be for the ultimate good of the 
nation; but it is naturally attractive to politicians who 
think only of the moment's success. 

On the other hand, we who are opposed to Mr. Wilson 
have a more difficult task, because we in good faith seek 
real solutions for our economic and social problems. We 
believe in organization. We understand the great value of 
corporate activities. We believe in enterprise and leader- 
ship. We do not appeal to envy and class antagonism as 
the Democrats under Mr. Wilson's leadership have done — 
for although Mr. Wilson was first schooled for the political 
race as a conservative who was to take advantage of the 
reaction against a wise radicalism, he promptly abandoned 
his former friends when he got into politics, and now stands 
as the champion of an unwise radicalism in those localities 
where he does not stand for mere bourbonism. 

The Lack of Constructive Policy 

The absolute lack of any constructive policy in Mr. 
Wilson's leadership comes out strikingly in his attitude 
toward business. His platform pledges, of course, amount 
to nothing on this point, or for that matter on any other 
point, but as far as they went they committed him, as did 
his promises, to the breaking up of all corporations, and 
the reintroduction of old-fashioned, ruthless, competitive 
methods in business — methods such as obtained in the mid- 
dle of the last century. We were promised explicitly, four 
years ago, in the Democratic platform, and by the Demo- 
cratic orators on the stump, that they would destroy all 
trusts by the utilization of the Sherman Law, and a tariff 
for revenue only, and would thereby lower prices and the 
cost of living. But prices and the cost of living have steadily 
gone up and Mr. Wilson has not invoked the Sherman Law 
against any big trust. The Sherman Law is on the books. 
It was a dead letter fourteen years ago. It became a live law 
only because of the success of the Northern Securities Suit. 
This suit established the vitally necessary principle that the 
national government had complete control over interstate 
business ; but the establishment of this principle was about 



114 Americanism and Preparedness 

all of any real use that was achieved under the Sherman 
Law, Great and important suits were won under it prior to 
Mr. Wilson's taking office; but the poor effects, or rather, 
non-effects, of these suits have shown that the Sherman 
Law offered no real method of doing away with the evils of 
corporate activities, while yet retaining what was good. 
There must be a totally different method of dealing with 
the problem. The case was admirably put by Mr. Hughes 
in his reply to Mr. Bryan on September 5th, 1908, when 
after a merciless dissection of Mr. Bryan's own proposals, 
he stated what our aim should be, as follows : 

"It is the function of law to define and punish wrong- 
doing, and not to throttle business. In the fields of in- 
dustrial activity the need is that trade should be fair; that 
unjust discrimination and illegal allowances giving prefer- 
ential access to markets should be prevented; that coercive 
combinations and improper practices to stifle competition 
should be dealt with regardless of individuals; but that 
honest industry, obtaining success upon its merits, denying 
no unjust opportunity to its competitors, should not be put 
under prohibitions which mingle the innocent and the guilty 
in a common condemnation." 

In other words, we believe in constructive regulation 
to free legitimate business from confusion, uncertainty and. 
fruitless litigation; while by means of a strong Federal 
administrative commission we prevent false capitalization, 
special privilege and unfair competition, including all un- 
fair trade practices, such as agreements to limit output, 
refusing to sell to customers who buy from business rivals, 
using the power of transportation to aid or injure special 
business concerns, and the like. We do not fear commercial 
power, but we desire that it be exercised openly under 
efficient publicity, supervision and regulation. Together 
with such regulation and management of business we be- 
lieve in effective legislation looking to the prevention of 
industrial accidents, occupational diseases, overwork', and 
involuntary unemployment ; to the enforcing of minimum 
safety and health standards by means of the Federal con- 
trol over interstate commerce and the taxing power; secur- 
ing an effective prohibition of child labor (in my judg- 



Prcparedne^is: Militari/, Industrial and Spiritual 115 

ment, preferably by the use of the, taxing power) ; securing 
a living wage and an eight-hour day for working women, 
one day's rest in seven and the eight-hour day in continuous 
industry, and other such measures. 

President Wilson has made no effort whatever to en- 
force the Sherman Law. Neither has he made any effort to 
change it. In one of his speeches he used a sentence which 
seemed to indicate that he regards the Federal Trade Com- 
mission as having the power to modify the Sherman Law. If 
this is what he meant, it is certainly not in accordance with 
the facts. Mr. Wilson is, however, a master of subtle in- 
direction in speech, and this sentence, like so many of his 
other sentences, is perhaps susceptible of several different 
interpretations. In any event; neither he nor any one else 
can point out wherein the Federal Trade Commission has 
the power to modify the Sherman Law; or wherein the 
Sherman Law has been in any way changed by any legisla- 
tion since he has been in office. He has not enforced it, but 
neither has he secured any modification of it. Unques- 
tionably he should have followed either one course or the 
other. The only certainty about the Sherman Law, espe- 
cially in view of the conflicting decisions in the lower courts 
as regards the Harvester Company and the Keystone Watch 
Case Company, is that its interpretation is surrounded by 
absolute uncertainty. But if Mr. Wilson's words about it 
mean anything — a rather wild supposition on my part, I 
admit — they mean that this law stands against modern co- 
operative methods. 

At any rate, either the law is good, in which case it 
should be enforced everywhere, or else it is not good, in 
which case it should be modified to whatever degree is nec- 
essary in order to make it efficient against dishonest busi- 
ness and no longer a threat to honest business. Mr. Wil- 
son has adroity avoided doing anything one way or the 
other. He has left the law sleeping on the statute books, 
but liable to be revived against all business, good and bad 
alike, at any moment. He has left all of the dangers and 
difficulties just exactly where they were before. He and 
his party have done nothing to protect the people frdm the 
evils in business of ^yhich they have been complaining ; ^ 



116 Americanism and Preparedness 

nothing to prevent over-capitalization, or stock watering or 
any other evil practice. In all of Mr. Wilson's utterances 
put together there is not one touch of the constructive 
statesmanship shown by Mr, Hughes in the single quotation 
above given. 

Mr. Wilson, before election, announced that the trusts 
must be destroyed by state action. As Governor of New 
Jersey he secured the passage of the "seven little sisters" 
bills, which he asserted would put a stop to the evils of the 
trusts. They have not done so in even the smallest degree. 
.The evils of the corporate system in the United States have 
been left absolutely unchanged and unremedied by anything 
that Mr. Wilson has done either as Governor of New Jersey 
or as President of the United States. 

Mr. Wilson and World Trade 

Nor is this all. Mr. Wilson has recently announced 
his desire, or, as he has put it, his "dream," that the United 
States shall "take her place in the great field of world 
trade." He has been appealing for the business vote by 
pointing out an alluring picture of the advantages and 
opportunities that foreign markets will soon offer. In his 
recent Omaha speech he said that we must "finance some 
of the chief undertakings of the world for ourselves." 
These words mean less than nothing so long as Mr. Wilson 
stands by his other words, uttered by himself and by his 
Secretary of State, announcing that American business 
men who went into Mexico did so at their own risk, and 
that he had no sympathy for them after they went; and 
that he would not try to protect them in their investments. 
Mr. Wilson never used weasel words of more significance 
than those two statements. Either his statement that we 
must "finance some of the chief undertakings of the world 
for ourselves" weasels all the honesty out of his statement 
that he is not interested in, and will not protect, American 
dollars in Mexico, which means, "the financing of some of 
the chief undertakings" of Mexico by Americans; or else 
the latter sentence weasels all meaning out of the first. 
Mr. Wilson has the right to say which of these two state- 
ments is the weasel, and which is the egg; but he cannot 



Preparedness : Military, Industrial and Spiritual 117 

deny that the relation between them is strictly that of the 
weasel and the egg. Mr. Wilson has said that he will fur- 
nish no protection to the business men who have made in- 
vestments in Mexico ; and for once his conduct on this 
point has made his words good, for he has not protected 
any man in Mexico, whether workingman, miner or rancher. 
Now, the country is entitled to know whether he really 
intends to reverse himself on this policy so far as countries 
outside of Mexico are concerned; and if so, why; and just 
what measure of protection he contemplates furnishing 
those business men who accept his rather dangerous invita- 
tion. The plainest construction of honesty and sincerity 
demands that he either reverse his Mexican policy or else 
announce that the only safe course for American business 
men in the future lies in avoiding the effort "to finance," 
or having any connection with, "the chief undertakings of 
the world" outside of the United States. There is no 
middle ground. I put this direct question to Mr. Wilson: 
Which of these positions does he take? Either he does 
not stand on his Mexican record, in which case he ought 
to admit the hideous and lamentable blunder of his whole 
Mexican policy for the last three and a half years; or else 
he does stand on his Mexican record, and if so his asking 
American business men to go into foreign markets is down- 
right hypocrisy. If Mr. Wilson will, not by subtle and 
adroit evasion, but with downright straightforwardness, 
attempt to answer this question, I believe he will find the 
attempt very stimulating to what he calls his "intellectual 
processes." 

The Proper Aim 

So much for ,Mr. Wilson and the Democratic Party. 
Now for ourselves. We who believe in protecting the 
legitimate interests of business men, in encouraging the 
great corporate instruments necessary for carrying on 
modern business, and in rewarding enterprises and leader- 
ship, must do all this for the very reason that we treat as 
of first importance the needs of labor. Our aim is to 
secure the maximum of good result for the average man, 
for the ordinary, decent, hard-working citizen. He is the 
man whom we have primarily in mind. The successful 



118 Americanism and Preparedness 

business man is entitled to justice for his own sake; and 
moreover unless we grant him such justice we can do 
nothing for anyone else ; but unless his profit is shared by 
farmer and workingman, by the ordinary man generally, 
our prime object is not achieved. We must see the cor- 
porate viewpoint; but we must see very much more than 
the corporate viewpoint. We must not offer to labor such 
empty solutions as are contained in the "New Freedom," — 
which in practice is merely the old, old freedom of the 
strong to prey on the weak^or in the chance to coerce 
capital by sinister and improper action tending to the 
limitation of output. We must correlate the demand for 
the enjoyment of rights with the sense of obligation fully 
to perform duties. We must raise, collectively and indi- 
vidually, our industrial standard. We must develop the 
power of self-help ; and we must supplement this power by 
the wise use of governmental power. We must ourselves or- 
ganize, and furnish the use of, satisfactory state and na- 
tional governmental machinery to accomplish those things 
that labor cannot accomplish for itself — and which it some- 
times attempts to accomplish in ways that would be de- 
structive to itself and to all of us. Bismarck carried such a 
programme through in Germany, with« the result that Ger- 
many has achieved a literally phenomenal industrial success, 
together with an exceptionally high standard of average 
well-being. He deliberately undertook to better the condi- 
tions of industrial and social life, not by adding to the cost of 
production, but by eliminating waste and introducing scien- 
tific — that is, rational, skillful and efficient — principles into 
the work of production and of distribution. It was one 
prime object of his policy to see that business was success- 
ful, and business men of leadership rewarded ; for other- 
wise the community would either stagnate or go backward, 
and nobody would get any reward at all. But it was also 
with him a prime object to secure for the wageworkers 
their legitimate share of the benefits, not only in wages, 
but in standard of living and in such ways as sickness in- 
surance, old-age pensions, and the like. Germany is in- 
finitely ahead of us in all of these matters. Germany gives 
better care, at less cost, to the workingman, in health and 



Preparedness: Militarij, liidmtriai and <^piritual 119 

in sickness, by her system of organization under govern- 
ment direction, and of organization by perfected private 
co-operation, than we do by our unregulated individualism. 
Under our system the workingman gets but one-third of 
what the German workingman gets in such a matter as 
compensation for injury. England is not so far ahead of 
us as Germany is. But even England's co-operative so- 
cieties are immensely ahead of ours. In Denmark, and 
elsewhere on the Continent, the farmers' co-operative or- 
ganizations have eliminated to an extraordinary degree the 
waste in the market. 

National Life Must Be Reshaped 

Neither demagogues nor doctrinarians can do such 
work, and least of all can it be done by the bitter preachers 
of class hatred. But mere tory obstructionists must not 
be permitted to stand in the way. Our strongest and ablest 
men are needed to give the lead in securing such national 
organization. We must apply under modern industrial 
conditions a programme that will lead to the fullest pos- 
sible life for, the great mass of our people. The very 
structure of our national life must be reshaped to meet the 
vast new needs, and it can best be remade in desirable 
fashion if the leadership is furnished by men of affairs who 
understand that, while they must themselves be encouraged 
and aided by the government, the encouragement and aid 
must be given on the condition of their helping to reshape a 
nationalized United States in such fashion that the farmers 
and wageworkers and ordinary business and professional 
men shall have their full share of the benefits. Our people 
generally must be made to feel that they share in the re- 
wards of our world trade, so that it may be obviously to 
their interests to support a self-respecting and vigorous 
policy in international affairs, and to accept the discipline 
and duty of universal service. The wise employers must 
realize in the future that the productive power of our fac- 
tories will ultimately depend upon the well-being no less 
than upon the zeal and good faith of our workers ; and the 
education of our children along cultural and vocational lines 
must be so handled as to' give us a trained, disciplined and 



120 Americanism and Preparedness 

efficient manhood and womanhood. Our business men must 
co-operate heartily in the effort to secure statesmanlike 
leadership in support of the great programme of reconstruc- 
tion in our nation, a programme in many respects such as 
that laid down by Bismarck when he organized the internal 
forces of his own nation. When this war is closed the ques- 
tions of social and industrial justice will come more strongly 
to the front than ever before, because this war will have 
turned the European States into communities more modern 
than we ourselves are now. After this war, if we do not 
face the new conditions, we shall be the Old World, and 
Europe the New World. 

The adroit demagogy of the Democratic leaders offers 
worse than no solution of the problems affecting us. It be- 
hooves sincere and sane men of vision to do their part in 
offering a constructive programme. This programme must 
not aim at the destruction of business to gratify envy, nor 
at the diminution of the efficiency of labor in a spirit of nar- 
row and bitter ignorance. It must seek to expand and re- 
ward business; it must seek to increase the efficiency and 
the output of labor ; but it must also secure for labor its full 
share in the reward. Business can not permanently flourish 
unless the wageworkers and the farmers have ample op- 
portunity to share in the rewards of our national effort. 

Remember always this effort to secure for each man 
his rights will be a failure unless at the same time we 
insist upon the full performance of duty by each. Neither 
farmers, laborers, nor business men deserve any considera- 
tion for their rights save in so far as they fully and whole- 
heartedly recognize their duties to the State and to their 
fellows, and perform these duties. 



TRUE AMERICANISM AND NATIONAL 
DEFENSE 

Chicago, Illinois, October 26, 1916 



THERE are many things this nati(5n needs, but the two 
vital things are, first, that it shall be a nation and, sec- 
ond, that it shall prepare itself in soul and body so that by 
its own strength it may guarantee to continue to be a na- 
tion. The reason that we hold Washington and Lincoln 
incomparably above all other Americans is that the great- 
ness of one was shown in making this people a nation, and 
the greatness of the other in keeping it alive as a nation. 
In other words, the most vital of all issues are those of 
Americanism and Preparedness ; and of these two Ameri- 
canism must come first, for there is no use to prepare to 
defend or uphold the American nation unless there is an 
American nation to defend and uphold. 

We may just as well definitely face the fact that no man 
can ever be a good American, no man can ever be a really 
first-class citizen of the United States unless he is an Amer- 
ican and nothing else. Recent events have shown us that the 
effort to combine loyalty to this land with loyalty to any 
other can only result in weakening the loyalty to this coun- 
try. Washington and Lincoln were of English descent, but 
they were not English- Americans. Their loyalty was undi- 
videdly and whole-hearted to the United States and to all of 
the people of the United States in every part thereof. - In in- 
ternational relations they judged England precisely as they 
judged all other nations; that is, in any given crisis they 
judged every foreign nation exactly in accordance with its 
conduct in that crisis; they were as incapable of the mean- 
ness of unreasoning malice and hatred towards any par- 
ticular nation as of the meanness of truckling to it and mak- 
ing its interests superior to our own. They set the standard 
of Americanism which all of our citizens should follow in 

121 



122 Americanism and Preparedness 

their relations with one another, in their attitude toward 
their own country, and in their attitude toward each and all 
foreign nations. 

Americanism a Matter of the Soul 

When I was a boy I received my first guidance in poli- 
tics through the cartoons of that famous American cartoon- 
ist, Thomas Nast. There never was sounder Americanism 
preached than by Nast. His cartoons dramatized for us of 
that time the hideousness of political corruption, and the 
equal hideousness of political demagogy. They dramatized 
for us, when I was a boy, the cruel injustice with which our 
public men too often treated the Army and Navy of the 
United States ; indeed, it was he who first gave me the feel- 
ing of eager championship of the Army and Navy which I 
have ever since retained. It was an education in American 
patriotism for any boy or young man to study and follow the 
cartoons of Nast, as I and my fellows studied them forty 
years ago. Tom Nast was born in Germany, but he was no 
more a German-American than Lincoln was an English- 
American, or Grant a Scotch-American, or Phil Sheridan an 
Irish-American. Grant to an especial degree was his hero; 
and Grant once remarked that among civilians not holding 
public office no other man in the country had done as much 
for this nation as Tom Nast. The two men worked together 
in this fashion precisely because each was an American and 
nothing but an American. They looked at all our domestic 
questions, and they looked at all our foreign questions, from 
the American standpoint and from no other. 

Later in life, when I was Police Commissioner in New 
York — not a silk stocking job, by the way — the man who 
was closest to me was Jacob Riis. He was by birth a Dane, 
but he was an American and nothing else. His loyalty to 
this country was undivided, and no man within our borders 
rendered more useful service, both to its body and to its 
soul. I could multiply such instances indefinitely. I men- 
tion these particular men only because I wish you to visual- 
ize just what I mean when I speak of Americanism. It 
does not depend upon the man's birthplace, it does not de- 
pend upon the man's creed. It does depend upon the man's 



True Americanism and National Defense 123 

soul, and upon his possession of single-minded and whole- 
hearted loyalty to this country of ours. 

Moral Treason to the Republic 

To divide our citizens along politico-racial lines is to be 
guilty of moral treason to the Republic. I have condemned 
unstintedly, and shall continue to condemn, apy effort by the 
professional German-Americans to shape our politics in the 
interests, not of the United States, but of Germany; and [ 
would just as strongly condemn any effort to organize any 
of our citizens as English-Americans, or French-Americans, 
or Irish-Americans for or against any foreign power. It is 
our business now, as it was in the days of Washington, to 
treat each and every foreign nation in any given crisis ac- 
cording to that nation's conduct in that crisis, guiding our- 
selves by but two considerations: first, the honor and wel- 
fare of the United States, and, second, the interests of hu- 
manity as a whole. To follow any other course is to be dis- 
loyal to this country. To hold for this country only a half 
allegiance is in reality to be hostile to this country; for in 
practice when the crisis comes the man whose loyalty is 
on a fifty-fifty basis between this country and some other 
always shows that his loyalty to the other country comes 
first. There is no room in this country for the perpetuation 
of different nationalities. Unless we succeed in fusing 
all of our people into one thoroughgoing American citizen- 
ship, into one American type, it is as certain as fate that 
this nation will in the end be shattered into fragments. If 
we are content to remain or become a conglomerate of many 
different nationalities, each holding apart from its fellows, 
each with its real devotions and ideals in some spot over- 
seas, and all united only as dollar hunters who live in the 
same boarding-house are united, we shall never really be a 
nation at all. And, my fellow citizens, remember that if such 
be the case, every individual in this nation will suffer in con- 
sequence. We can not attain our full stature as men except 
as we attain it through our' common American nationality, 
and this is true of our political, our social, our literary and 
artistic life. 

The modern man can accomplish but little singly, as an 



124 Americanism and Preparedness 

individual. He can attain a broad life only if he is a citizen 
of a great nation. As in the days of St. Paul, it is today 
important to be a "citizen of no mean city." The advantages 
of modern science and modern tools, and of a great litera- 
ture, and art, can be secured only as we stand together 
clasping the hands of our fellow citizens in a common loy- 
alty to our nation. The strength and effectiveness of a 
nation, in its domestic affairs and in its international rela- 
tions, are dependent primarily upon national solidarity and 
the loyalty and patriotism with which each individual is 
united to his fellows in their devotion to the flag which 
symbolizes this common country. 

It is not really open to our people to remain representa- 
tives in good standing of the Old World countries from which 
they or their forefathers sprang. If they make the attempt 
they merely become second-rate transplanted Germans or 
Englishmen or Frenchmen, as the case may be ; and the Ger- 
mans, Englishmen or Frenchmen of the Old World, in their 
hearts, cordially despise and look down on these transplanted 
aliens, even though they make sinister use of them against 
the United States. 

Allegiance Must Be Undivided 

The only way for all of us, or for any of us, to achieve 
our own self-respect, and to deserve and win the respect of 
other nations, is by becoming Americans and nothing else. 
I ask those who believe that any other course is compatible 
with genuine loyalty to this country to read the letter from 
Professor Munsterberg of Harvard to Chancellor Bethman 
Hollweg, published in the New York Times of Oct. 10th. I 
grieved to see this letter; for Professor Munsterberg has 
long been my friend whom I have liked and respected; he 
has given much advice to Americans ; and it was a matter of 
genuine regret to me to see this proof that he treated the 
well-being of America as negligible compared to the inter- 
ests of Germany. In his letter he spoke of his purpose- to 
aid Mr. Wilson, in view of the desirability of Mr. Wilson's 
offering himself as a mediator, in the furtherance of Ger- 
many's plans. His eulogy of Mr. Wilson as a peace arbi- 
trator, however, has in it a touch of wholly unconscious 



True Americanism and National Defense 125 

humor. He says : "If he once works himself into the idea of 
being the arbitrator of the world he will be so intoxicated by 
the joy of playing a historic part that he will give himself 
up to it with his whole soul and without rest. He will re- 
main strictly neutral, less out of moral conscientiousness 
than from an aesthetic pleasure in his unique role." He 
then explains why in the interest of Germany, not the United 
States, he supports Mr. Wilson as mediator, and the paci- 
fist, peace-at-any-price crowd, saying in part : "I hold it now 
to be my chief task here to encourage the pacifist sentiment 
now abroad, and so my main work consists in continually 
writing new essays and articles in favor of the preservation 
of peace and of Wilson's reputation as a mediator. All this 
peace material naturally appears without my name. Un- 
fortunately, the peace call which Bryan was going to issue 
has found its way into the papers too soon." He then re- 
gretfully asserts that "it can not be denied that the Ger- 
^man-American cause has suffered a most unexpected slump 
. German-Americans of all classes are suddenly en- 
deavoring to accentuate their American tendencies — the 
patriotic ivavc has swept all the loeaker elements along ivith 
it!" The italics of this last astounding sentence are my own. 
Dr. Munsterberg then continues by complaining that so 
many German- Americans are beginning to shape their policy 
"in America's, not Germany's, interest." 

Two things are notable in this letter. The first is that 
Dr. Munsterberg is using his position in America to serve 
Germany, without regard to whether such service hurts or 
harms America. The second is something for which we 
must all feel devoutly grateful ; for by the best possible tes- 
timony, that of an adverse and unwilling witness. Dr. Mun- 
sterberg shows that the professional German-Americans who 
put Germany above America can not carry with them the 
mass of Americans of German descent, who, on the contrary, 
when a crisis comes, are swept "by a patriotic wave," and 
act "in America's, not Germany's, interest." It is a tribute 
which I am sure that the immense majority of American 
citizens of German descent richly deserve. And the letter 
itself shows the absolute impossibility of successfully serv- 
ing two masters. No man can be either, both an English- 



126 Americmiism and Preparedness 

man and an American, or both a German and an American. 
In each case he must be one or the other. No American is a 
good American unless he is absolutely undivided in his 
loyalty and allegiance, in word, deed, thought and spirit, to 
the United States. 

Americanism is the first essential. Readiness for na- 
tional defense is the second. At Denver I went over in detail 
what should be done from the military standpoint. To-day 
I wish to discuss Mr. Wilson's handling of the Navy. 

Nine-tenths of Wisdom Is Being Wise in Time 

In any matter where the man who criticises another 
has himself held the same office, it is right that the critic's 
record should be compared with his criticisms, so that his 
deeds and his words may be judged together. I ask you 
to remember that while I was President, in a message to 
Congress I held up to this nation as the model for action in a 
democracy the Swiss and Australian systems for universal 
military training for the young men. There was at the time 
no disturbance of any kind that demanded an increase in 
our regular army ; and I confined myself as regards the 
regular army to the effort to make it more efficient. After 
the failure of The Hague Convention to limit the size of 
armaments or the silze of ships, I made recommendations 
in my annual message of December, 1907, and sent a special 
message to Congress on April 14th, 1908, which, as state- 
ments of national and international needs and policies, apply 
exactly to-day. In these messages I supported the plan sub- 
mitted by the General Board, of which the central feature 
was the provision of four super-dreadnought battleships a 
year. If these recommendations of mine had been acted 
upon and been since treated as a settled policy, and if the 
navy had been handled as it was then handled, our strength 
would now be such that there would be no fear of attack 
from any Old World power. Last spring, after three years 
of halting and folly, President Wilson turned a character- 
istic somersault and under the pressure of public opinion 
stood for substantially the same program for which I stood 
nearly nine years ago. The difference is that he was wise 
after the event and I before the event. Nine-tenths of wis- 



True Americanism and National Defense 127 

dom is being wise in time ! If Mr. Wilson had been willing 
to face facts when the great war broke out, and when even 
the blindest ought to have been able to read the awful lesson 
written in blood across the face of Europe, our navy and 
army would now be in such shape that, in the hands of a 
resolute man, they could guarantee our safety. This is not 
now the case, and on President Wilson's shoulders rests the 
entire responsibility for our lamentable failure. 

One of the gravest offenses against the nation which 
has been committed by President Wilson and the Democrats 
in control of the two Houses of Congress during the last six 
years has been the handling of the navy. Seven years ago 
the navy had reached a point of efficiency, relatively to the 
other nations of the world, never before attained. In 1909 
there was no other navy in the world at so high a point of 
efficiency and enthusiasm. This was at the time the battle- 
fleet returned from its voyage around the world, an event 
unparalleled in history, a feat no other nation had ever per- 
formed, a feat of incalculable service to this country alike 
from the standpoint of increasing our navy's efficiency, and 
from the standpoint of impressing the most powerful for- 
eign nations with the fact that we desired to show friend- 
ship to all, but that we were ready at any moment to defend 
our rights from whatever quarter they might be assailed. 
The organization of the Navy Department was being re- 
modeled under a commission composed of Admiral Mahan, 
Judge Moody, and other distinguished men who were out- 
lining a new and effective plan to replace the antiquated and 
vicious bureau system. 

Under the excellent administration of Secretary of the 
Navy Meyer the report of this commission was carefully 
considered and confirmed, and a good beginning was made 
in the aide system. Congress still lagged behind the Navy 
Department ; nevertheless it continued the upbuilding of the 
navy. But when in 1910 the Democrats secured control of 
Congress, they immediately put a stop to the further building 
up of the navy, embarrassing Mr. Meyer's administration 
and preventing the fulfilment of his plans. 



128 Americanism and Preparedness 

The Navy Brought Into Partisan Politics 

Then President Wilson was elected, and he appointed 
as Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Daniels, a gentleman who, I 
have no doubt, is of amiable private character, but who is 
without one single qualification for his task; and whose ap- 
pointment not only meant that President Wilson was en- 
tirely ignorant of the needs of the navy and entirely indif- 
ferent to them, but also that the navy, in his view, was of 
no consequence, except as it could be made an asset in un- 
worthy partisan politics. By no possibility could the ap- 
pointment of Mr. Daniels be taken to mean anything else. 
It has borne its full and natural fruit, Mr. Wilson has not 
only appointed and retained him in office but has specifically 
endorsed him. It is Mr. Wilson, not Mr. Daniels, who is ulti- 
mately responsible for every shortcoming in our naval, as 
in our military and international, policy. 

Politics Preferred to Military Principles 

The acts and policies of the Navy Department during 
the past three years have shown a determination on the 
part of Mr. Wilson's Administration to subordinate and 
ignore efficient professional and military agencies and influ- 
ences, and to promote in every department afloat and ashore 
the rule of injustice, personal fads and improper political 
considerations in direct opposition to sound military princi- 
ples. For two years the navy was not even permitted to 
engage in the fleet maneuvers and fleet target practice abso- 
lutely essential to its efficiency, and it was only the storm 
of public condemnation that forced Mr. Daniels finally to 
yield to the professional advice which he had previously 
ignored and permit a beginning to be made toward restoring 
at least the Atlantic squadrons to something resembling 
their old efficiency. The aide system established in order to 
co-ordinate the bureaus and emphasize purely military effi- 
ciency and preparedness was gradually abolished. The 
aides were not merely ignored, but punished when they en- 
deavored to secure action on vitally important service mat- 
ters. The conduct of the Department to Admiral Bradley 
Fiske offers the most striking proof of this fact. Instead of 
seeking his own personal comfort and profit by obsequiously 



True Americanism and National Defense 129 

bowing to the men in political control of the navy, Admiral 
Fiske stood loyally and unswervingly for the interests of the 
service. In November, 1914, he wrote a really pathetic let- 
ter asking for action on the very points that subsequently 
met with the approval of the people and of Congress, as 
shown in the bills just passed. The present Administration 
now claims credit for passing these bills. The Administra- 
tion never took the slightest action upon them until forced 
to do so by the people. Admiral Fiske's letter was sup- 
pressed, and was only published seventeen months later at 
the request of the Senate. In this letter the Admiral showed 
that we were unprepared and deficient in training, and yet 
Mr. Daniels, although thus warned and given opportunity 
to learn, in his annual report to Congress inverted the truth 
and misled the people. 

The administration merely followed public opinion, 
after having sedulously tried to mislead it ; and at that time 
not merely ignored Admiral Fiske's letters, but drove him 
from the Navy Department. His persistent attempts to 
secure attention for important matters submitted by the 
General Board met with repeated failure, and on at least 
one occasion his earnest and respectful effort to get proper 
consideration for subjects vitally necessary for the well- 
being of the navy earned him a severe reprimand and per- 
sonal rebuff. Throughout the first three years, and until 
the growing concern and weariness of the people showed 
that it was no longer possible wholly to deceive them, the 
Administration never brought to the front or considered 
the question of the war efficiency or battle efficiency of the 
navy. It devoted its whole time to considerations of per- 
sonal and partisan politics. Officers of the highest standing, 
whose letters I have seen, state that any visitor on personal 
and political business, any man with private ends to serve, 
whether in connection with supposed labor interests or sup- 
posed capitalistic interests, had a full hearing at the De- 
partment ; but the men with the welfare of the navy at heart 
had none. Finally the Navy Department went back to the 
Bureau System, which all of the best naval officers for 
thirty years have condemned as absolutely impossible under 
the modern conditions of war, and which has been aban- 



130 Americanism and Preparedness 

doned by every first-class navy in the world. The adminis- 
tration of the Navy Department was left in the hands of 
the Secretary and his personal appointees, a plan which 
meant the personal control of the navy by civilian poli- 
ticians, in opposition to all military principles ; and this 
was done with the full and hearty backing of President 
Wilson. The very points where there has been improvement 
in the navy have been in cases such as that of the organiza- 
tion of the office of operations, which was forced through 
by a prominent Congressional leader with the zealous assist- 
ance of Admiral Fiske, and in direct opposition to the Navy 
Department. The Administration opposed military control 
of the navy yards, and sought to substitute political and 
civilian influences and in some of the appointments this 
result has, lamentably for the navy, been achieved. The 
retention of useless navy yards, which forms one of the 
best illustrations of pork barrel politics, has been favored. 
Favoritism and unfairness have prevailed in handling the 
personnel. When zealous officers, single-minded in their 
devotion to the navy, have pointed out defects ^or improve- 
ment, they have in turn been reprimanded, and this whether 
the man concerned was at the head of the submarines, or 
was an admiral who had to do with the management of 
fleets. It is only under the flail of a partially aroused public 
opinion that this matter has been in a measure corrected 
during the last nine months. 

Such Official Tyranny Never Before Existed 

Before entering into power Mr. Wilson announced that 
he was going to insist on "pitiless publicity," but as a mat- 
ter of fact we have never had an Administration where there 
has been so much furtive and underhand work. The recent 
letter of Mr. Richard H. Dana shows this as regards the 
civil service. It has been the case especially in the navy and 
army, where the tyranny over officers, to prevent them from 
expressing their opinions on those military matters which 
they are most competent to discuss, has been such as never 
before obtained in time of peace in this country. I know 
personally of instance after instance where officers have 
been refused permission to express themselves on such sub- 



True Americanism and National Defense 131 

jects as universal military training, or on matters vital to 
the welfare of the navy, or where they have been rebuked 
for so expressing themselves. I could give the names were 
it not that I would invite punishment upon the men con- 
cerned. 

There are certain matters, however, which have been 
made public. Admiral Fiske was refused permission to 
address the Commercial Club of Chicago on our naval needs. 
It was announced in the press that the President of the 
Naval War College was severely reprimanded for an admir- 
able paper on naval needs read before the Efficiency Society 
of New York. The Naval Institute was refused permission 
to publish an article of great value on the enlisted personnel 
which won honorable mention. Under the present adminis- 
tration the only publicity permitted was what would pro- 
mote the personal and political self-advertising of the Admin- 
istration. In no monarchical country of Europe has such a 
despotic rule been known. In Great Britain officers freely 
discuss naval needs and policies, and if the people of this 
country were alive to the needs of the navy in this matter, 
they would never for an instant tolerate the deception con- 
cerning the true conditions of the navy through the tyran- 
nical smothering of the truth in the interests of the poli- 
ticians who now direct our navy. It is peculiarly easy for 
a political leader in high public office to mislead our people 
about the navy, if he is either a doctrinaire or a politician. 
It is a branch of the public service concerning which there 
is need of expert knowledge; and therefore the public can 
readily be misled by leaders willing to sacrifice the welfare 
of the nation in the future to -considerations of party poli- 
tics in the present. 

Harm Done to the Navy 

More harm has been done to the navy by the politicians 
in power during the last three years than in the preceding 
thirty. Whatever good has been accomplished in the navy 
during the last three years has been done by naval officers, 
who in most cases have been snubbed and punished for their 
proposals as long as it was safe to do so ; whereas Mr. Daniels 
now turns and claims credit for what was thus forced upon 



132 Amer'icanism and Preparedness 

him. For example, in 1915, the General Board demanded 
19,000 men, and yet the Administration asked for only 10,000 
men. During the years of peace immediately preceding the 
present Administration some 14,000 men had been added to 
the navy, although at that time there was no special strain 
on the navy. After 1913 the strain became acute, thanks to 
the Mexican trouble and the great war. The proof of this 
is the action of the Administration in at last proposing a 
great increase of the navy; for the considerations that jus- 
tify and require this increase became as strikingly evident 
two years ago as they ate now. The action of Congress and 
the Administration now in doing what all true friends of the 
navy have for years demanded can be justified only if we 
unhesitatingly condemn them for not having taken this 
action two and a quarter years ago, at which time even the 
blindest ought to have seen the need. 

For three years after this Administration took office it 
refused seriously to prepare, or even to recommend serious 
preparation, although repeatedly asked to do so by the best 
naval experts. Shore stations were stripped of men, and 
ships placed out of reserve for lack of men to man new ships. 
Confusion and inefficiency followed. The 27,000 additional 
men authorized in the present navy bill were allowed by 
Congress on the testimony of officers, and in direct opposi- 
tion to the Navy Department. 

In short, throughout President Wilson's term there has 
been neglect or positive maladministration in connection 
with departmental organization in navy yard, aeronautics, 
mines and torpedoes, and in all other matters affecting the 
efficiency of the fleet and the enthusiasm of its officers and 
men. Every improvement and every advance has been forced 
upon an unwilling Navy Department by the people enforc- 
ing their desires through Congress, or else by officers of the 
navy; and these officers have, received no credit for their 
self-sacrificing efforts, and in some cases have been actually 
rebuffed or punished. The activity and energy of the Navy 
Department under President Wilson have been primarily 
concentrated upon schemes aimed at vote-getting or adver- 
tising. Strict military considerations affecting the efficiency 
and morale of the officers and enlisted men were neglected 



True Americanism and National Defense 133 

and thrust aside until the public feeling rendered it impera- 
tive that some attention should be paid to them. 

Had the progress that had been made in our naval af- 
fairs prior to the incoming of this Administration been con- 
tinued ; had the advice of Admiral Fiske and other such offi- 
cers been heeded during the last three years of stagnation 
and political domination, our navy would now be in first- 
class shape. The past three years have been the most im- 
portant in world history for a century, and in our history 
for fifty years, and after August, 1914, our needs were so 
evident that it was a crime against the nation to disregard 
them. But the present Administration took no action what- 
ever until, with the opening of the present political cam- 
paign, it became politically unsafe longer to delay. 

Under Mr. Wilson and Mr. Daniels the conditions in our 
navy have closely paralleled the conditions in the French 
Navy a dozen years ago. A capital French book, published 
in 1904 from the soundest patriotic motives, describes what 
was done in the French navy just prior to that time, under 
an incompetent civilian head who made it his business to 
lessen the efficiency of the fighting forces of the navy by 
treating the navy as primarily a political asset, and also 
using it to advance injurious fads. All intelligent observers 
of foreign affairs knew at that time that the French navy 
was in a state of demoralization, for that was in the period 
when the professional pacifists gained an influence in French 
administration, which, if it had not been speedily overcome, 
would have resulted in the absolute, complete ruin of France. 
The widespread demoralization in the navy of France when 
it was dominated by irresponsible politicians who treated it 
primarily as an asset in partisan politics bears an ominous 
resemblance to what has occurred in connection with the 
mishandling of our own navy under President Wilson. 



THE SOUL OF THE NATION 
Cooper Union, New York, November 3, 1916 



New York, Oct. 2Uh, 1916. 

Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, 

en route, Denver, Colorado. 

It is our conviction that no other Presidential campaign 
in the history of the United States has presented graver 
issues or more far-reaching problems than does this. Not 
only is the domestic welfare of the nation profoundly to be 
affected by the result, but the honor and the very safety of 
the Republic are at stake. 

Upon the character and the policies of the next Admin- 
istration tvill depeyid the course of the United States duri7ig 
its most critical years. As business men and as loyal citi- 
zens we are deeply concerned in aiding to bring about a 
decision that will restore sound principles and true Amer- 
icanism to the conduct of our national affairs. 

In this momentous hour the vital need is for such a 
presentation of the issues as ivill arrest the tvidest attention 
and carry the clearest message to the public mind. Ajid this 
task ive commend to your hands. 

No living American has a greater audience. Already 
you have done memorable service to your country in awak- 
ening it to a sense of its perils and obligations, and you have 
revealed an unselfish patriotism that makes your voice sin- 
gularly potent in counsel and inspiration. Will you not lend 
it to the cause once more, by addressing the people of the 
nation from the vantage ground of a great mass meeting in 
the metropolis? Under these circumstances a message 
from Theodore Roosevelt on " America' s Crisis" would ring 
from coast to coast, and might be the final means of avoid- 
ing a calamitous decision at the polls. 

The undersigned suggest Cooper Union as the place, 

134 



The Soul of the Nation 135 

and an evening during the week of October' 23d-28th as the 
time. Severally arid unitedly we urge upon you acceptance 
of this great opportunity for public service. 

John G. Shedd, Chicago, 111. 

R. Livingston Beekman, Providence, R. I. 

Charles Curtis Harrison, Philadelphia, Pa. 

William Barbour, New York. 

Andrew D. White, Ithaca, N. Y. 

Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, Somerville, N. J. 

Darwin P. Kingsley, New York. 

Myron T. Herrick, Cleveland, Ohio. 

Horatio C. King, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

David Jayne Hill, Rochester, N. Y. 

John B. Farwell, Chicago, 111. 

Frederick Talcott, New York. 

John Wanamaker, Philadelphia. 

Hamilton Fish, Garrison, N. Y. 

Charles Sumner Bird, East Walpole, Mass. 

Julius Rosenv^ald, Chicago, 111. 

George C. Riggs, New York. 

H. J. Heinz, Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Isaac N. Seligman, New York. 

Warner Miller, Herkimer, N. Y. 

Nathan T. Folwell, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Thomas R. Proctor, Utica, N. Y. 

Truman H. Newberry, Detroit, Mich. 

Lloyd Griscom, New York. 

Sylvester S. Marvin, Bryn Mawr, Pa. 



I am glad to speak in this historic building, at the re- 
quest of men of such high standing as those who have asked 
me to speak ; and I thank them for having asked me to speak 
on the most vital of all present-day questions, the "Nation's 
Crisis," a crisis preeminently moral and spiritual. 

There can be no greater misfortune 'for a free nation 
than to find itself under incapable leadership when confront- 
ed by a great crisis. This is peculiarly the case when the 
crisis is not merely one in its own history, but is due to some 



136 Americanism and Preparedness 

terrible world cataclysm — such a cataclysm as at this mo- 
ment has overwhelmed civilization. The times have needed 
a Washington or a Lincoln. Unfortunately we have been 
granted only another Buchanan. 

The appeal is made on behalf of Mr. Wilson that we 
should not change horses in crossing a stream. The worth 
of such an appeal is not obvious when the horse, whenever 
he comes to a stream, first pretends he is going to jump it, 
then refuses to enter it, and when he has reached the middle 
alternately moves feebly forward and feebly backward, and 
occasionally lies down. We had just entered the greatest 
crisis in our history when we "swapped horses" by exchan- 
ging Buchanan for Lincoln; and if we had not made the 
exchange we would never have crossed the stream at all. 
The failure now to change Mr. Wilson for Mr. Hughes would 
be almost as damaging. 

Washington and Lincoln confronted crises of different 
types, and therefore in any given crisis it is now the example 
of one, now the example of the other, which it is most essen- 
tial for us to follow. Each stood absolutely for the National 
ideal, for a full Union of all our people, perpetual and in- 
destructible, and for the full employment of our entire col- 
lective strength to any extent that was necessary in order 
to meet the nation's needs. Lincoln had to deal with vital 
questions of internal reform, and with the overturning of 
internal forces tending toward the destruction of the Union. 
Washington had to deal primarily, not only with the creation 
of our Union, but with the maintenance of our liberty against 
all adverse forces from without. This country must learn 
the lessons taught by both careers, and must apply the 
principles established by those careers to the ever-changing 
conditions of the present, or sooner or later it will go down 
in utter ruin. 

The lesson of nationalism and therefore of efficient ac- 
tion through the national government is taught by both 
careers. At the present moment we need to apply this prin- 
ciple in our social and industrial life to a degree far greater 
than was the case in either Washington's day or Lincoln's. 

The expansion of our people across the continent has 
gone hand in hand with their immense concentration in 



The Soul of the Nation 137 

great cities, and with gigantic changes in the machinery of 
communication, transportation, and production; changes 
which have worked a business revolution almost as vast as 
that worked by all similar revolutions put together since the 
the days of the Roman Empire. Therefore we are now 
forced to face problems not only new in degree, but new in 
kind. We must face these problems in the spirit of Wash- 
ington and Lincoln ; but our methods in industrial life must 
differ as completely from those that obtained in the times 
of those two great men of the past as the weapons of war- 
fare now differ from the flintlocks of Washington's soldiers, 
or the muzzle-loading smooth-bores of Lincoln's day. We 
must quit the effort to meet modern conditions by flintlock 
legislation. We must recognize, as modern Germany has 
recognized, that it is folly either to try to cripple business 
by making it ineffective, or to fail to insist that the wage- 
worker and consumer must be given their full share of the 
prosperity that comes from the successful application and 
use of modern industrial instrumentalities. Both capitalists 
and wageworkers must understand that the performance of 
duties and the enjoyment of rights go hand in hand. Any 
shirking of obligation toward the nation, and towards the 
people that make up the nation, deprives the offenders of all 
moral right to the enjoyment of privileges of any kind. 
This applies alike to corporations and to labor unions, to rich 
men and poor men, to big men and little men. 

There can be no genuine feeling of patriotism of the 
kind that makes all men willing and eager to die for the land, 
unless there has been some measure of success in making 
the land worth living in for all alike, whatever their station, 
so long as they do their duty; and on the other hand, no 
man has a right to enjoy any benefits whatever from living 
in the land in time of peace, unless he is trained physically 
and spiritually so that if duty calls he can and will do his 
part to keep the land against all alien aggression. Every 
citizen of this land, every American of whatever creed or 
national origin, should keep in mind the injunction of George 
Washington to his nephews, when in his will dated July 9th, 
1799, he bequeathed to each of them a sword, making the 
bequest in the following words: 



138 Americanism and Preparedness 

"The swords are accompanied with an injunc- 
tion not to unsheathe them for the purpose of 
shedding blood, except it be for self-defense, or 
in defense of their country and its rights ; and in 
the latter case to keep them unsheathed and prefer 
falling with them in their hands to the relinquish- 
ment thereof." 

These are noble words. Remember that they gained 
their nobility only because the deeds of Washington had 
been such that he had a right to utter them. His sword had 
been sheathed until he drew it on behalf of national liberty 
and of humanity, and then it was kept unsheathed until 
victory came. His sword was a terror to the powers of evil. 
It was a flame of white fire in the eyes of those who fought 
for what was right. 

Washington loved peace. Perhaps Lincoln loved peace 
even more. But when the choice was between peace and 
righteousness, both alike trod undaunted the dark path that 
led through terror and suffering and the imminent menace 
of death to the shining goal beyond. We treasure the lofty 
words these men spoke. We treasure them because they 
were not merely words, but the high expression of deeds 
still higher ; the expression of a serene valor that was never 
betrayed by a cold heart or a subtle and selfish brain. 
We treasure what Washington enjoined on his blood-kin 
as their duty when they should inherit his swords ; but we 
do so only because Washington's own sword never slipped 
from a hand made irresolute by fear. We treasure the 
words that Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg, and in his second 
inaugural ; words spoken with the inspiration of a prophet 
of old, standing between- the horns of the altar, while the 
pillars of the temple reeled round about. The words spoken 
by Lincoln were spoken when he was weighed down by iron 
grief, and yet was upheld by an iron will, so that he stood 
erect while the foundations of the country rocked beneath 
his feet, and with breaking heart and undaunted soul poured 
out, as if it were a libation, the life blood of the best 
and bravest of the land. We cherish these words of his only 
because they were made good by his deeds. We remember 
that he said that a government dedicated to freedom should 



The Soul of the Nation 139 

not perish from the earth. We remember it only because 
he did not let the government perish. We remember that 
he said that the bondman should be free at whatever cost. 
We remember it only because he paid the cost and set the 
bondman free. 

When Lincoln accepted the nomination of the Repub- 
lican Party in 1860, he spoke of the platform of that party as 
follows : 

"The declaration of principles and sentiments 
which accompanies your letter meets my approval, 
and it shall be my care not to violate or disregard 
them in any part." 

This was a short statement. It derived its value from 
the fact that it was a promise that was kept. I ask you to 
compare this record of Lincoln's with the cynicism shown 
by Mr. Wilson at different times in repudiating almost every 
promise he has ever made on any matter of vital importance. 
He has repudiated the promises of the platform on which 
he was elected. He has repudiated the promises he m^de on 
the stump to further his own election. He has now repu- 
diated about all the promises which he has made since he be- 
came President. 

I have been assailed because I have criticised Mr. Wil- 
son. I have not said one thing of him that was not abso- 
lutely accurate and truthful. I have not said one thing of 
him which I did not deem it necessary to say because of the 
vital interests of this Republic. I have criticised him be- 
cause I believe he has dragged in the dust what was most 
sacred in our past, and has jeopardized the most vital hopes 
of our future. I have never spoken of him as strongly as 
Abraham Lincoln in his day spoke of Buchanan and Pierce 
when they were Presidents of the United States. I spoke 
of him at all, only because I have felt that in this great world 
crisis he has played a more evil part than Buchanan and 
Pierce ever played in the years that led up to and saw the 
opening of the Civil War. I criticise him now because he has 
adroitly and cleverly and with sinister ability appealed to 
all that is weakest and most unworthy in the American char- 
acter ; and also because he has adroitly and cleverly and with 



140 Americanism and Preparedness 

sinister ability sought to mislead many men and women 
who are neither weak nor unworthy, but who have been mis- 
led by a shadow dance of words. He has made our states- 
manship a thing of empty elocution. He has covered his 
fear of standing for the right behind a veil of rhetorical 
phrases. He has wrapped the true heart of the nation in a 
spangled shroud of rhetoric. He has kept the eyes of the 
people dazzled so that they know not what is real and what 
is false, so that they turn, bewildered, unable to discern the 
difference between the glitter that veneers evil and the 
stark realities of courage and honesty, of truth and strength. 
In the face of the world he has covered this nation's face 
with shame as with a garment. 

I hardly know whether to feel the most burning indig- 
nation at those speeches of his wherein he expresses lofty 
sentiments which his deeds belie, or at those other speeches 
wherein he displays a frank cynicism of belief in, and of 
appeal to, what is basest in the human heart. In a recent 
speech at Long Branch he said to our people, as reported 
in the daily press, that "You cannot worship God on an 
empty stomach, and you cannot be a patriot when you are 
starving." No more sordid untruth was ever uttered. Is 
it possible that Mr. Wilson, who professes to be a historian, 
who has been a college president, and passes for a man of 
learning, knows nothing either of religion or of patriotism ? 
Does he not know that never yet was there a creed worth 
having, the professors of which did not fervently worship 
God whether their stomachs were full or empty? Does he 
not know that never yet was there a country worth living 
in which did not develop among her sons something at least 
of that nobility of soul which makes men not only serve their 
country when they are starving, but when death has set its 
doom on their faces ? 

Such a sentence as this could be uttered only by a Presi- 
dent who cares nothing for the nation's soul, and who be- 
lieves that the nation itself puts its belly above its soul. 
No wonder that when such a doctrine is preached by the 
President, his Secretary of War should compare Washington 
and Washington's soldiers with the bandit chiefs of Mexico 
and their followers who torture men and murder children, 



The Soul of the Nation 141 

and commit nameless outrages on women. This sentence 
is as bad as anything Secretary Baker himself said. I call 
the- attention of these apostles of the full belly, of these 
men who jeer at the nation's soul, I call the attention of 
President Wilson and his Secretary of War and his Secretary 
of the Navy, to what Washington said of his own soldiers 
when he spoke of them in a letter to Congress on April 21st, 
1778: 

"Without arrogance or the slightest deviation 
from truth, it may be said that no history now ex- 
tant can furnish an instance of an army's suffering 
such uncommon hardships as ours has done and 
bearing them with the same patience and forti- 
tude. To see men without clothes to cover their 
nakedness, without blankets to lie on, without 
shoes for the want of which their marches might 
be traced by the blood from their feet, and almost 
as often without provisions as with them, march- 
ing through the frost and snow and at Christmas 
taking up their winter quarters within a day's 
march of the enemy without a house or a hut to 
cover them till they could be built, and submitting 
without a murmur, is a proof of patience and obe- 
dience which, in my opinion, can scarce be para- - 
- lleled." 

That is what Washington said. Does Mr. Wilson think 
that these men of Valley Forge were not patriots, because 
they were starving? Is his own soul so small that he cannot 
see the greatness of soul of Washington and of the Conti- 
nental soldiers whose feet left bloody tracks upon the snow 
as they marched towards the enemy? They were clad in 
rags ; their eyes were hollow with famine ; their bodies were 
numbed with cold and racked with fever; but they loved 
their country ; they stood for the soul of the nation and not 
for its belly. Mr. Baker and Mr. Daniels have done evil to 
this country only because they stood where their master, 
Mr. Wilson, had placed them. Mr. Baker has preached the 
doctrine of contempt for the men of the Revolution only 
because he has followed the lead of the President, who says 



142 Americanism and Preparedness 

that religion is merely a matter of a full stomach, and that 
patriotism vanishes when heroes feel the pinch of famine. 
I call your attention to these statements not only because 
they are foul slanders on everything that is good in human 
nature, not only because they are a foul slander on every 
American worth calling an American, but because they show 
the character of Mr. Wilson himself. 

So much for Mr. Wilson when he says what he really 
feels. Now a word about what he says when he speaks 
what it is quite impossible that he really believes. On last 
Saturday afternoon, with an effrontery that is literally 
dumbfounding, he said that when he "started in one direc- 
tion" he "would never turn around and go back," and that he 
"had acted upon this principle all his life," and that he "in- 
tended to act upon it in the future," and that he "did not see 
any obstacle that would make him turn back." Why, his 
whole record has consisted in turning back at every point 
when he was bidden to do so by either fear or self-interest. 
He has reversed himself on almost every important position 
he has ever taken. There is not a bandit leader in Mexico 
who does not know that if he can show enough strength he 
can at any moment make Mr. Wilson not merely turn back, 
but humbly kiss his hand ; kiss the hand that is red with the 
blood of our men, women and children. Mr. Wilson says 
that he "never turns back!" Why, he has been conducting 
his whole campaign on the appeal that he has "kept us out 
of war" ; and yet last Thursday, without a moment's notice, 
and only ten days before election, after having been going 
full speed in one direction, he turned around and went full 
speed in the reverse direction on this very point; saying, 
forsooth, that if there was another war we must not keep 
out of it! He has been claiming credit because in the case 
of Belgium he has preserved a neutrality that would make 
Pontius Pilate quiver with envy ; and yet in this speech last 
Thursday he said that never again must we be neutral ! He 
has kept us absolutely unprepared ; so that now we are as 
absolutely unprepared, after he has been in office three and 
a half years, as we were when he took office ; and yet he now 
says that we must enter the next war whenever one comes ! 
He has looked on without a single throb of his cold heart, 



The Soul of the Nation 143 

without the least quickening of his tepid pulse, while gallant 
Belgium was trampled into bloody mire, while the Turk 
inflicted on the Armenian and Syrian Christians wrongs 
that would have blasted the memory of Attila, and he has 
claimed credit for his neutral indifference to their suffering ; 
and yet now, ten days before election, he says the 
United States must hereafter refuse to allow small nations 
to be mishandled by big, powerful nations. Do it now, Mr. 
Wilson! If you mean what you say, Mr. Wilson, show that 
you mean it by your action in the present. 

There is no more evil lesson that can be taught this peo- 
ple than to cover up failure in the performance of duty in the 
present by the utterance of glittering generalities as to the 
performance of duty in the nebulous future. With all my 
heart I believe in seeing this country prepare its own soul 
and body so that it can stand up for the weak when they are 
oppressed by the strong. But before it can do so it must 
fit itself to defend its own rights, and it must stand for the 
rights of its citizens. During the last three years and a 
half, hundreds of American men, women and children have 
been murdered on the high seas, and in Mexico. Mr. Wil- 
son has not dared to stand up for them. He has let them 
suffer without relief, and without inflicting punishment 
upon the wrongdoers. When he announces that in some dim 
future he intends to stand up for the rights of others, let 
him make good in the present by now standing up for the 
rights of our own people. He wrote Germany that he would 
hold her to "strict accountability" if an American lost his 
life on an American or neutral ship by her submarine war- 
fare. Forthwith the Arabic and the Gulflight were sunk. 
But Mr. Wilson dared not take any action to make his threat 
effective. He held Germany to no accountability, loose or 
strict. Germany despised him ; and the Lusitania was sunk 
in consequence. Thirteen hundred and ninety-four people 
were drowned, one hundred and three of them babies under 
two years of age. Two days later, while the dead mothers 
with their dead babies in their arms lay by scores in the 
Queenstown morgue, Mr. Wilson selected the moment as 
opportune to utter his famous sentence about being "Too 
proud to fight." Mr. Wilson now dwells at Shadow Lawn. 



144 Americanism and Preparedness 

There should be shadows enough at Shadow Lawn; the 
shadows of men, women and children who have risen from 
the ooze of the ocean bottom and from graves in foreign 
lands ; the shadows of the helpless whom Mr. Wilson did not 
dare protect lest he might have to face danger ; the shadows 
of babies gasping pitifully as they sank under the waves; 
the shadows of women outraged and slain by bandits; the 
shadows of Boyd and Adair and their troopers who lay in the 
Mexican desert, the black blood crusted round their mouths, 
and their dim eyes looking upward, because Pr-esident Wil- 
son had sent them to do a task, and had then shamefully 
abandoned them to the mercy of foes who knew no mercy. 
Those are the shadows proper for Shadow Lawn; the 
shadows of deeds that were never done ; the shadows of lofty 
words that were followed by no action; the shadows of the 
tortured dead. 

The titanic war still staggers to and fro across the 
continent of Europe. The nations engaged in the death 
wrestle still show no sign of letting up. Some time in the 
next four years the end will come, and then no human being 
can tell what this nation will have to face. If we were ready 
and able to defend ourselves and to do our duty to others, 
and if our abilities were backed by an iron willingness to 
show courage and good faith on behalf both of ourselves 
and of others, not only would our own place in the world be 
secure, but we might render incalculable service to other 
nations. If we elect Mr. Wilson it will be serving notice on 
the world that the traditions, the high moral standards, the 
courageous purposes of Washington and Lincoln have been 
obscured, and that in their stead we have deliberately elect- 
ed to show ourselves for the time being a sordid, soft and 
spineless nation; content to accept any and every insult; 
content to pay no heed to the most flagrant wrongs done to 
the small and weak; allowing our men, women and children 
to be murdered and outraged ; anxious only to gather every 
dollar that we can, to spend it in luxury, and to replace it by 
any form of moneymaking which we can follow with safety 
to our own bodies. 

We cannot for our own sakes, we cannot for the sake 
of the world at large, afford to take such a position. In 



The Soul of the Nation 145 

place of the man who is now in the White House, who has 
wrought such shame on our people, let us put in the Presi- 
dential chair the clean and upright Justice of the Supreme 
Court, the fearless Governor of New York, whose whole 
public record has been that of a man straightforward in his 
thoughts and courageous in his actions, who cannot be con- 
trolled to do what is wrong, and who will do what is right no 
matter what influences may be brought against him. 



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